HSBC must close its business in Malta if the tiny European Union state with a reputation for a lax approach to financial regulation does not do more to confront the scourge of money-laundering, a leading MEP has warned.
Sven Giegold, a German MEP with a reputation for fierce campaigning on financial transparency issues, promised to turn his fire on HSBC if the Maltese government did not take more concrete action to tighten up regulations.“If I don’t see a change in attitude, backed up by demonstrable action, I will launch a campaign calling for HSBC to quit the island,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
Mr Giegold, who was a member of the European Parliament’s committee of enquiry into money laundering and tax evasion, was speaking after a visit to Malta earlier this month which he described as “disappointing”.Malta’s financial services authority, the MFSA, has been under pressure from Brussels in recent months after a European Banking Authority report found “general and systematic shortcomings” in how Malta applies money-laundering rules.
The threat to launch a potentially damaging publicity campaign against HSBC’s continued presence in Malta could raise fresh questions over the sincerity of the bank’s on-going efforts to restore its reputation after a series of scandals and compliance failures.
The criticism followed an EBA investigation into Malta’s 2014 decision to grant a license to Pilatus Bank and its subsequent lax supervision after US prosecutors indicted its owner over allegations it had been set up with the proceeds of a Iran sanctions-busting racket.
