Pilatus bank affair is “a lesson learnt”, FIAU director says

The Pilatus bank controversy was a lesson learnt for the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, its director Kenneth Farrugia said.

Speaking at the Finance Malta annual conference, Mr Farrugia said the FIAU did not appeal decisions by the European Banking Authority on the matter because it decided to adopt the recommendations.

The EBA had found the FIAU had breached the requirements of a directive on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing in the way it handled Pilatus Bank.

The Ta’ Xbiex based bank had been embroiled in controversy since its inception. Last year, the bank had its licence revoked by the European Central Bank, two years after being implicated in money-laundering breaches.

Mr Farrugia said the FIAU went on to implement most of the recommendations by the EBA. 

He also pointed out that awareness of money-laundering and financial crime had increased. The  FIAU had already received almost 1000 reports of suspicious transactions this year, he said.

Speaking on a panel on combatting financial crime, Police Economic Crimes Unit head Ian Abdilla said the police were also beefing up staff and were looking at raising the number of civilian financial crime...