Alternattiva Demokratika will tomorrow present a formal request to the Auditor General to open an investigation on the Malta Financial Services Authority.

In a statement this afternoon, deputy chairman Carmel Cacopardo said it was crystal clear that the crisis which hit the country was due to the complete collapse of the institutions entrusted to safeguard transparency, governance and ethics in every area of public life.

“After the police force has been emasculated by the change of no less than four commissioners in three years, and after their massive delays to investigate the serious allegations coming out in these past few days, a long shadow is now cast on the financial services regulator, the MFSA.”

The Greens will be asking Auditor General to examine the license granted by the MFSA to Pilatus Bank, and in particular:

1. If the criteria under which the licence was issued followed the normal and usual practice used by the authority in similar circumstances, especially since the bank’s chairman was not even a banker.

2. To investigate whether steps had been taken by the MFSA when and if it realised that the bank’s clients including politically exposed persons from Azerbaijan, the most corrupt country in the world, with a substantial risk that their bank accounts were financed by money laundering, inflicting huge reputational damage on the entire financial sector of Malta.

3. To examine the claim that during an inspection by the MFSA in 2015 bank accounts belonging to Minister Konrad Mizzi and the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri were identified and if this was the case, why were their names omitted from the final inspection report.

Mr Cacopardo  said AD  had to take this step since the financial services regulator had remained silent in spite of the ongoing serious allegations about the operations of financial services institutions in Malta.