MALTA MOVES QUICKLY ON FATF RECOMMENDATIONS

UNCLAS VALLETTA 000485 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KNNP PARM PREL EFIN MT SUBJECT: MALTA MOVES QUICKLY ON FATF RECOMMENDATIONS REF: A. SECSTATE 121356 ¶B. VALLETTA 455 ¶1. Charge D'Affaires conveyed points contained in Reftel A demarche on November 19 to Charles Inguanez, MFA Director-General for Economic Affairs and Chairman of the Sanctions Monitoring Board, and Alan Caruana, Head of Secretariat at the Ministry of Finance. ¶2. Inguanez informed Charge that on November 6 that he had communicated the earlier message (reported Reftel B) to Malta's Financial Services Authority (MFSA) which immediately began work to implement the various recommendations of the FATF regarding exposure to Iran. Inguanez reported that the MFSA is now "handling the various issues involved" with implementation of the recommendations contained in that request. ¶3. MFSA is also coordinating with the Central Bank and Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) on the issuance a formal report detailing the actions taken to date. Post will provide the text of that document once it becomes available. DAVIS