MALTA’S 2023 NATIONAL MONEY LAUNDERING, TERRORIST FINANCING, PROLIFERATION FINANCING AND TARGETED FINANCIAL SANCTIONS RISK ASSESSMENT
In recent years Malta has made significant strides in improving its AML/CFT framework, resulting in its removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list in June 2022.
The country’s efforts began in 2018 with the National Risk Assessment (NRA) and intensified after the 2019 Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) by MONEYVAL highlighted a number of deficiencies. Under MONEYVAL, Malta underwent an enhanced follow-up procedure, achieving a ‘largely compliant’ or ‘compliant’ rating for all technical recommendations.
Malta’s 2023 NRA builds on these achievements, marking a significant evolution in the country’s approach to identifying and mitigating risks related to Money Laundering (ML), Terrorism Financing (TF)and, for the first time, Proliferation Financing (PF) and Trade-Based Money Laundering (TBML).
The NRA serves a dual purpose: enhancing the understanding of risks among competent authorities and law enforcement and providing guidance to the private sector for bolstering their risk-based approaches.
Consequently, it contains specific guidance and recommendations for subject persons applying preventative measures on a risk-based approach. Subject persons are urged to assess their risks based not only on their sector-specific analysis, but also on the additional sections covering overall ML, TF , PF and TFS-related risks and their recommendations.
We encourage you to reach out to us for further clarification on the NRA recommendations that need to be incorporated into your daily operations through updated policies and procedures.
