Pilatus Bank issue is a big problem – new MFSA head

The Pilatus Bank issue was “a very big problem”, the Malta Financial Services Authority’s new chairman, John Mamo, told a parliamentary committee yesterday.
Prof. Mamo admitted he knew little more than any layman on the matter.
“I followed the situation developing closely and I agree that it is a very big problem. However, I cannot say if the MFSA acted correctly because I simply do not know,” he said during a hearing of the Public Appointments Committee.
A lawyer and entrepreneur, Prof. Mamo, who was nominated to the post last December to succeed Joe Bannister, spoke very candidly at the hearing.
He described Deutsche Bank, the Frankfurt-based, investment bank and financial services company, as a “well-known money-laundering channel”. Countries like Germany and Sweden, which were being vociferous in criticising the Maltese jurisdiction, should note they did not have a clean slate either. London was also a centre for money-laundering, he continued.
“We want to make it clear we are keeping a clean house,” Prof. Mamo said, adding that Malta should still not “be a masochist.

“We should not seek to go beyond what critics are asking of us.”
Members from both sides of the House of...