Prevention of money laundering in Malta

Abstract

The main aim of this research is to evaluate the current attitude of Maltese banking staff towards the efforts of putting the current anti-money laundering legislation into practice. This study will also compare the implementation of anti-money laundering legislation in Malta with other European Union Member countries. This is to highlight any variances in the way the legislation is put into practice and to shed light on any areas which can be improved. In addition to this, this research aims to detect any flaws in the system which might prevent employees from performing their job in the best way possible. The general findings are that locally, the main areas which have to be kept under focus are training and adopting a risk-based approach. On an EU scale, it was observed that over reporting might be leading to a waste of energy and resources which can be utilised more efficiently and effectively. These findings do suggest that in Malta more funds have to be invested in training employees in this field and to implement any changes which might make the current system more flexible. A case in point is the risk-based approach. Also the minimum harmonisation between countries does create some issues when it comes to the comparison and evaluation of data. Maximum harmonisation may be enforced between EU members. The researcher was thus led to conclude that more effort has to be done by credit institutions to enforce what is requested by law or through a directive on a local scale. It is felt that more money has to be invested in this sector. The implications of these conclusions are that in Malta, the competent authority is minimising its costs by reducing its efforts to educate the employees directly involved with customers which in the long run might lead to the expense