Updated 9.15am

Good morning. These are the leading stories in this week's Sunday newspapers. 

The Sunday Times of Malta reveals that Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi is the most likely candidate to replace Silvio Camilleri as Chief Justice once he retires next month. 

The paper also writes that local investigators have been combing through Pilatus Banks' servers for months, looking for traces of money laundering activity, and that the Prime Minister's chief of staff Keith Schembri was among the guests at the wedding of former bank chairman Sayed Ali Sadr Hasheminejad. 

The Malta Independent on Sunday reports that international consultants have presented the government with a three-year plan to strengthen its financial institutions. 

Malta Today writes that lawyers for Maria Efimova, the former Pilatus Bank employee who handed herself in to Greek police last week, have dismissed suggestions that she might apply for political asylum there. 

The newspaper also leads with news that US investigators were in Malta to meet with FIAU officials in late 2017, as part of their final preparations leading to the indictment of Ali Sadr Hasheminejad.

It-Torċa quotes FinanceMalta chairman Kenneth Farrugia as saying that the MFSA had acted swiftly and effectively to block Pilatus Bank activity. 

Il-Mument reports that Joseph Muscat and his Finance Minister Edward Scicluna are at loggerheads following this week's Pilatus Bank developments. The paper also writes that Gozitan Nationalist Party members have raised a record amount for the PN. 

Illum also leads with news of Maria Efimova, with the newspaper quoting police commissioner Lawrence Cutajar as saying Greece is duty-bound to extradite her to Malta.