VALLETTA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Malta's Finance Minister Edward Scicluna accused on Wednesday the European Commission of pushing the European Banking Authority (EBA) into taking action against Malta's Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU).
A recent investigation by the EBA concluded that the FIAU had broken the third anti-money laundering directive in its handling of the private Pilatus Bank, whose chairman Ali Sadr Haseminejad was arrested in the United States in March on charges of money laundering and evading U.S. sanctions on Iran.
His arrest prompted the suspension of the bank's licence by the Maltese financial regulator. The report has again raised questions about the FIAU and its ability to clamp down on money laundering, bringing about calls for Scicluna's resignation.
In an opinion piece published in the Times of Malta on Wednesday, Scicluna said the EBA was being rushed, by the Commission, into its conclusions, to make an example out of Malta.
"The political pressure on the Commission came specifically from three MEPs, pushed by Malta's David Casa," Scicluna wrote.
He said that "tiny Malta" was being singled out for system procedural failures over a single case, when bigger EU banks "continue being associated with thousands of real and proven AML transgressions, valued at several billion."
