Published (in revised form) on 13th October 2024 in Journal of Financial Supervisors Academy Volume I. Artificial Intelligence is set to fundamentally reshape how financial markets are regulated and overseen, and supervisory authorities cannot afford to be passive bystanders. That is the central argument of an article by Nicolas Vasse (now Executive Director at AMLA), Richard Gigax (Regulatory Compliance Consultant), Thanh Tran Tien (Product Manager at Banque de France), and

By Elena Tabone Head Enforcement at the Malta FIAU (Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit) The publication of a new Settlement Policy and Enforcement Guide, as well as the publication of the governing principles for the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit’s (FIAU’s) Compliance Monitoring Committee (CMC), provide unprecedented transparency and clarity regarding the approach to the monitoring and enforcement of AML/CFT measures in Malta. These initiatives are part of broader ef

Published (in revised form) on 29th January 2025 in Journal of Financial Supervisors Academy Volume I. When Malta created a framework for Virtual Financial Assets in 2018, it set a precedent for how regulators can engage with technological disruption ahead of the curve. A new analysis by Professor Filippo Annunziata, published in Volume I of the Journal of Financial Supervisors Academy, examines a parallel challenge now confronting Maltese-listed issuers, investment firms and

Published (in revised form) on 5th February 2025 in Journal of Financial Supervisors Academy Volume I. Asset tokenisation - the process of representing real-world assets on a blockchain - is quietly reshaping how financial markets think about ownership, liquidity, and settlement. But as the technology matures, the regulatory frameworks governing it are struggling to keep pace. Drawing on their direct experience supervising digital asset entities within Bermuda's Financial Aut

As the European financial landscape undergoes an era of profound digital and structural transformation, the mandate of national competent authorities continues to evolve. We are no longer just the custodians of the Single Rulebook; we are the architects of its effective, consistent, and forward-looking implementation. For the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), our 2026 Supervisory Priorities set out a clear and purposeful roadmap to ensure that Malta remains a resilie

By Elena Tabone, Head – Enforcement of Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit Remediation is a powerful tool for achieving compliance, but its effectiveness relies on both thorough supervision and equally rigorous enforcement capacity. With this in mind, between 2018 and 2020, Malta’s Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) embarked on a program of transformation to overhaul its supervisory and enforcement measures with the aim of strengthening its functions and po