The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) is one of the weaker financial supervision authorities in the EU. MFSA has been scrutinized by Moneyval, with Malta likely to be greylisted in the coming months. The country and its authorities have an unfortunate history of corruption.

In 2018, the then CEO Joseph “Joe” Cuschieri hat to resign after just one month on allegations of conflict of interest, among others. His alleged misconduct included 38 paid business trips with his MGA/MFSA colleague Edwina Licari and a free business trip to Las Vegas paid by an alleged murder mastermind (Reuters). Moreover, he received extra money, that is, multiple payments for activities that Cuschieri performed for the MFSA.

Josef Gavin followed Cuschieri as the regulator’s CEO. Christopher Buttigieg is Chief Officer Supervision. Edwina Licari is the General Counsel, and Michelle Mizzi Buontempo is the Chief Officer Enforcement. In August 2022, MFSA announced that Josef Gavin would retire from his post sometime in 2022.

Christopher Buttigieg is facing serious accusations in Malta’s courts for trying to convince a license holder to sell to his competitor.

We classify them in our “Orange Compliance” list.