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The country’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) will scrutinise crypto companies’ ownership structures over the next year as part of its ongoing drive against illicit finance.
In its AML/CFT Supervisory Plan 2025–2026, the FIAU said it would conduct meetings, on-site inspections and thematic reviews during the second year of its five-year compliance monitoring plan.
For crypto-asset providers, the FIAU will focus on compliance with beneficial ownership obligations, particularly in relation to complex structures and shell companies.
It will also scrutinise deposits and withdrawals involving crypto-assets in the remote gaming sector.
Credit institutions will be reviewed for misuse of products and services in trade-based money laundering, and financial institutions will face checks on money remittances, with both areas examined for terrorist financing risks.
Strengthening compliance
The FIAU said it is committed to strengthening its compliance monitoring by focusing supervisory initiatives not only on high-risk sectors and subject persons, but also on prominent risks and trends identified through sectoral and institutional assessments.
The regulator said the plan aims to strengthen monitoring of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) through proportionate supervisory interventions.
“The FIAU also strives to synchronise guidance and outreach initiatives with the areas to be supervised as per the plan. This is a manifest of the FIAU’s ultimate goal of enhancing the compliance culture and knowledge among subject persons, first and foremost,” it added.
The compliance drive underscores the vulnerability of payments and crypto-asset firms to financial crime, and the ongoing challenge regulators face in keeping pace with criminals.
It also highlights the need for payments and crypto-asset providers to ensure their procedures are fully compliant with Malta’s AML/CTF rules.
Evolving issue
In July, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published a report on terrorist financing, highlighting its serious and evolving nature, terrorists’ ability to exploit the international financial system and the need for risk-based CTF measures.
The report outlined emerging trends, including the combined use of multiple financing methods and the integration of digital technologies with conventional techniques, adding new layers of complexity to terrorist financing.
Malta’s financial regulators are eager to demonstrate their commitment to tackling financial crime and their ability to address what is a complex, evolving issue.
The compliance drive is the latest in a series of enforcement actions, reports and sanctions by Malta’s financial authorities this year.
In April, as covered by Vixio, the FIAU fined a subsidiary of crypto giant OKX €2.7m for significant AML failings, in one of the largest enforcement actions to date against a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in the jurisdiction.
The imposition of the penalty came a month after the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) issued a Dear CEO letter identifying major shortcomings in how crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), e-money institutions (EMIs) and payment service providers (PSPs) address terrorist financing and targeted financial sanctions risks, urging stronger governance and compliance cultures.
Having been the first EU member state to be grey-listed by FATF (from June 2022 to June 2023), Malta has worked hard to rehabilitate its reputation.
To exit the grey list, the country strengthened the FIAU, tightened regulatory oversight and increased enforcement activity, and the process of reform is still ongoing.
The latest supervisory plan, with its focus on areas such as crypto firms’ beneficial ownership, represents a continuation of the island nation’s attempt to demonstrate that it has a robust and effective AML/CTF framework in place.
