Brussels put political pressure on the European Banking Authority to “rush and act” and make an example of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna charges.
In a Talking Point on today’s the Times of Malta, Prof. Scicluna says the pressure from the European Commission led the EBA to take action in the anti-money-laundering field for the first time at the EU level.
It used the FIAU to show European financial regulators could cope with such issues, he said, adding that the European Commission itself faced specific pressure from three MEPs, “pushed” by David Casa.
The EBA said last week that the FIAU had breached the EU’s third anti-money-laundering directive in 2016 during its oversight of Pilatus Bank.
Read: MFSA set to ‘study’ banking authority recommendations on FIAU
Read: Finance Minister must resign over banking authority report into FIAU – Delia
Prof. Scicluna accused shadow finance minister Mario de Marco of “rushing out” of a 2015 meeting held to amend the country’s anti-money-laundering legislation to threaten the national regulatory authorities with a court case in defence of his professional clients Fenplay, an Italian iGaming operator…
