“Malta has the ability to close any lingering gaps, if any are found, within its coordination mechanism and the respective institutions to ensure that it remains fully compliant to the principal international standards to counter money laundering,” Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said today.

He was addressing a two-day training programme organised by Moneyval as part of the Country Preparation Programme.

Moneyval is a permanent monitoring mechanism of the Council of Europe, a pan-European organisation with 47 member states reporting directly to its principal organ, the Committee of Ministers.

Moneyval is entrusted with the task of assessing compliance with principal international standards to counter money-laundering and the financing of terrorism, the effectiveness of their implementation, as well as the task of making recommendations to national authorities with respect to necessary improvements to their systems.

Malta will be undergoing an evaluation by Moneyval during 2018.

Prof. Scicluna stated that during this preparatory stage Malta should take up the opportunity to further strengthen the country’s regulatory and supervisory role.

This seminar was attended by over a hundred top officials from the public and private sectors, among which were members of the judiciary, the police force, the Office of the Auditor General, the Revenue Department, Customs, the Ministry for Finance, the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, the Malta Financial Services Authority, the Malta Gaming Authority, the Central Bank of Malta and leading commercial banks.