Finance minister Edward Scicluna said on Monday that it was not up to him to say whether minister Konrad Mizzi and the prime minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri should resign over allegations on money laundering.

“Ask them not me. I am responsible for what I do” he said when questioned on the latest revelations.

When the Times of Malta pointed out to him that he is a member of cabinet and holds collective responsibility for what is going on, Prof Scicluna insisted that journalists should give some more time to inquiries so that investigations can be concluded.

“The United States took five years to find the evidence against Pilatus Bank chairman Ali Sadr. We in Malta want everything to be concluded in six months. let’s wait and see” he said.

Asked about the allegations by FIAU that Pilatus Bank was a money laundering machine used by Azerbaijan politicians to launder money, Prof Scicluna said that he does not know anything about these allegations.

He said that while the FIAU had found irregularities at the bank, these were later corrected through the help of KPMG.

He said that the fact alone that Politically Exposed persons (PEPs) were the banks' clients did not mean it was used for money laundering.

“Our Bank of Valletta is full of PEPs as all Maltese politicians have accounts there” he said to justify his argument.

He said that Pilatus Bank was under scrutiny and he did not rule out that the MFSA might withdraw its licence if irregularities were found.