Malta egaming “inherently vulnerable” to money laundering, new EU report claims
Pan-European body claims AML risks are “insufficiently analysed or understood” by authorities
The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering (AML) body has called on the Maltese authorities to step up efforts to combat money-laundering in Malta, claiming current resources used are inadequate.
In a new report, MONEYVAL assessed the effectiveness of Malta’s current AML and anti-terrorism financing initiatives across a broad range of industries and its level of compliance with the guidelines set out by the EU’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The report highlights the online gambling sector in Malta as being “inherently vulnerable” to money laundering due to the high number of non-resident customers using online operator sites.
This, together with the high volume of transactions being processed, the non-face-to face nature of online gambling and the use of prepaid cards by players constitutes an increased risk of money laundering, according to MONEYVAL.
The report claims Maltese authorities are not fully utilising financial intelligence provided by the Maltese Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, asserting only a limited number of cases are investigated using data from the unit.
MONEYVAL also highlighted concerns regarding the use of suspicious transaction reports (STRs) provided by online operators concerning non-residents, claiming these are “not sufficiently considered” by authorities in identifying potential instances of money laundering in Malta.
MONEYVAL called on the Malta Gaming Authority, the Maltese police and the FIAU to “make better use” of STR’s in proactively pursuing money laundering investigations.
Reporting of suspicious transactions by egaming firms has increased exponentially since 2013
The report acknowledged Maltese authorities had demonstrated a broad understanding of AML vulnerabilities.
However, despite this, MONEYVAL claimed factors including so-called predicate offences, terrorist financing, the use of new technologies and the use of cash in money laundering are “insufficiently analysed or understood” by Maltese authorities.