Malta placed on FATF Grey List

[DX148]

Seeking some guidance regarding yesterday's news of Malta being placed on the FATF grey list.

I was just about to pull the trigger on re-domiciling a holding company there (all passive income) from a country Portugal considers a tax haven in order to comply with the Portugal NHR rules.

- How much of a hindrance will this be for me to open bank accounts, even EMI accounts, for the new Malta entity now they they are on the FATF grey list?
- Will this increased FATF scrutiny severely limit my ability to move funds from passive dividends to this Malta company and from the Malta company to my personal accounts in the form of dividends?
- Should I abandon my Malta plans and re-domicile to Cyprus instead and take the hit on the extra tax?

Any thoughts appreciated
DX

 

[Silvio]

Seems this was done due to pressure from Germany\US\UK which I guess is related to their EU passport selling program.
Malta seems pretty desperate to remove themselves from that list judging by the urgent flight of their minister of finance to Germany to try to avoid the greylisting.

My guess (not based on anything, just a hunch): Malta will stop or severely restrict the passport selling program, do some KYC\AML reforms (although I don't know what reforms they can do as it's already impossible to open a bank account in Malta) and they will be removed from the greylisting within 1-2 years. Iceland was removed after 12 months after doing all sorts of reforms.

In the meantime what effect this will have? who knows... just goes to show how important it is to diversify over multiple banks\jurisdictions as you never know what banks will shut you down for being from the wrong country, and what banks will still want to take the risk of having you. Either way as long as the bank profits from you (you got 6 figures to put in "investment products") enough banks will still be willing to deal with you.

 

[Martin Everson]

That's interesting.

I guess extra due diligence will be applied to all wire transactions related to Malta. I read also that US/GB/DE all were in favor of Malta being grey listed . Tough old world out there. I think issue is somehow related to Malta's crypto activity. This was never a wise move as I said years ago on here Malta was a ticking time bomb.

- How much of a hindrance will this be for me to open bank accounts, even EMI accounts, for the new Malta entity now they they are on the FATF grey list?

Extra due diligence I suppose.

- Will this increased FATF scrutiny severely limit my ability to move funds from passive dividends to this Malta company and from the Malta company to my personal accounts in the form of dividends?

Doubt it.

- Should I abandon my Malta plans and re-domicile to Cyprus instead and take the hit on the extra tax?

I wouldn't say Cyprus is any better.

 

[Martin Everson]

Malta removed from FATF grey list​

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/malta-removed-from-fatf-grey-list.962000

 

[JohnnyDoe]

The EU keeps marching to its own drum

 

[lostguy]

They managaed to get of the list quickly.

 

[Martin Everson]

Yeah I guess Malta pledged to U.S not to allow again smuggled Libyan oil to be sold via its now defunct Satabank bank .

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/09/malta-fuel-oil-smuggling-libya-daphne-project
Gibraltar will also exit after 1 year once it too agrees to uphold U.S sanctions after releasing that Iranian vessel against U.S wishes

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/world/europe/iran-gibraltar-tanker.html

Oh the politics of this all...lol.