Despite the allegations involving Pilatus Bank, it was incredible that it was allowed to continue operating as usual, the Opposition leader said today.

The fact that the Malta Financial Services Authority has permitted the bank to continue operating as though nothing has happened is a dereliction of duty,” Simon Busuttil said.

“We now know that Pilatus Bank has very few clients who are mostly PEPs from Azerbaijan and they also include Brian Tonna and Keith Schembri." 

He added that it was also unbelievable that the bank had started legal action in the United States against anybody who threatened its reputation with false and defamatory allegations.

“This makes no sense. We are in Malta and not in the US. Why did they go to the US?”

READ: Pilatus Bank to sue over defamatory claims and data leaks

He also pledged to clean up the Individual Investor Programme if elected next month, insisting sale of passports will not be allowed.

“I will, first and foremost, clean the IIP scheme up because this has now been tainted by Keith Schembri and Brian Tonna but there is also need for this to be revised," he told reporters.

“The idea that we sell citizenship is an idea that as a country we should not have to accept. It is good that we attract investors and we encourage them to come to Malta and then we might consider giving them passports after having lived here for a number of years,” Dr Busuttil said.

He insisted that a new Nationalist government would not allow citizenship to be bought “off the shelf”.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat insisted that the cash-for-passport scheme was “fool proof” and could not be tampered with.

Dr Muscat's chief-of-staff Keith Schembri has been accused of having taken kickbacks from the Individual Investor Programme, claims which he denies.