Malta’s due diligence of rich passport buyers gets glowing review

Malta’s due diligence of people applying to buy citizenship has been held up as “a textbook example” of effectiveness and reliability by Thomson Reuters.

Peter Vincent, general counsel at the Canadian company that provides intelligence services, said Malta’s Individual Investor Programme provided a high standard of due diligence.

"Malta has a reputation for having a very solid programme for citizenship and residency that has very secure due diligence processes in place and transparency. It's by no means perfect but there is no completely secure system in the world but if you are looking for a model, not just for the EU but for the entire world, I would look to a country like Malta," Vincent said in an interview with Investment Migration Insider, an industry journal.

Thomson Reuters's Peter Vincent

Thomson Reuters is one of the companies used by Identity Malta to help it in the screening of prospective clients.

Vincent was speaking on the price war in the Caribbean over citizenship programmes, which was affecting due diligence standards in the region.

“Malta is a textbook example of how to conduct effective and reliable due diligence,” he said, adding that Identity Malta should look beyond its remit and mentor other countries still trying to develop their programmes.

The IIP was introduced amid much controversy in 2014 with the aim of attracting rich foreign nationals interested in buying Maltese citizenship. The scheme has enabled the country to create a multi-million euro fund administered separately from government accounts.

The programme last year raised some €165 million and is capped at 1,800 applications, a number likely to be reached some time next year.

The government has been criticised by the European Parliament because the names of those who obtain citizenship through the IIP are not published separately. Instead, the names are included without any specific identifier with those of others who obtain citizenship through naturalisation.

At a recent citizenship forum organised by Henley and Partners, the company entrusted to manage and market Malta’s scheme, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said Malta will be extending its citizenship by investment programme.

He told his audience in Hong Kong the second IIP programme would be “even more exclusive” than the current version, without elaborating further.