Amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations

How do these amendments affect Subject Persons?

Whilst some of these changes solely relate to the alignment of the Regulation to the EU Directive and the new Company Service Providers Act, others are of more relevance such as the following: 

1. The Definition of “Supervisory Authority” was expanded to include a number of bodies that may collaborate with the FIAU. The additional bodies are the following:
   • Malta Business Registry
   • the Licensing Board established under the Real Estate Agents, Property Brokers, and Property Consultants Act
   • Trade Licensing Unit but limited to its licensing function in relation to dealers in precious metals and stones;
2. Regulation 4 of the PMLFTR allowed the FIAU to exempt entities who provide financial activity on an occasional or very limited basis and where there is little risk of money laundering or the funding of terrorism occurring. A new proviso was added stating that this exemption may not be applied to a person who engages in the remittance or transfer of money;
3. FIAU has been empowered to impose fines up to €5m. However, in the case of severe cases which merit a higher fine, the FIAU can take into consideration the subject person’s turnover and calculate the penalty based on 10% of the turnover, as long as this results in an administrative penalty that is higher than €5m.

For more information on the above changes and other changes which were carried out, please refer to Legal Notice 199 of 2021, and for the communication issued by the FIAU click here