EU Tells Malta to Step Up Crackdown on Money Laundering by Banks

(Bloomberg) -- The European Commission ordered Malta to step up its efforts to combat money laundering, after the European Central Bank revoked the license of a Maltese bank under investigation for suspected involvement in illicit money flows.

• The commission, the European Union’s executive arm, said on Thursday that Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit must “take additional measures to fully comply with its obligation” under EU law to “effectively supervise financial institutions on its territory, including by having an effective sanctioning regime.”
• At the commission’s request, the European Banking Authority investigated and concluded that the Maltese watchdog was breaching EU law. The commission’s opinion issued on Thursday is based on the EBA’s findings and measures adopted by Malta in the meantime.
• In September, the commission also asked the EBA to investigate whether the supervisors of Danske Bank A/S in Denmark and Estonia followed the rules in handling the lender’s money-laundering scandal.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Brussels at lpronina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nikos Chrysoloras at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net, Patrick Henry

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