A 847
I assent.
(L.S.) GEORGE VELLA
President
20th July, 2021
ACT No. XLIII of 2021
AN ACT to provide for the am endment of various laws to
facilitate the use of financial and other information for the
prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of certain criminal
offences and to make ancillary and c onsequential provisions thereto.
BE IT ENACTED by the President, by and with the advice and
consent of the House of Representatives, in this present Parlia ment
assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows:-
Short title and 
scope.1. (1) The short title of this Act is the Various Laws
relating to the Facilitating of the Use of Financial and other
Information (Amendment) Act, 2021.
(2) The scope of this Act is to transpose Directive (EU) 2019/
1153 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019laying down rules facilitating th e use of financial and other
information for the prevention, detection, investigation or pro secution
of certain criminal offences, and repealing Council Decision 2000/642/JHA.
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A 848
PART I
Amendments to the Criminal Code
Amendments to 
the Criminal Code.
Cap. 9.2. This Part amends the Crimina l Code and it shall be read
and construed as one with the Criminal Code, hereinafter in thi s Part
referred to as "the Code". 
Amendment of 
article 518 of the Code.3. In the proviso to article 518 of the Code, the words "in
article 695." shall be substituted by the words "in article 695 :" and
immediately thereafter there sh all be added the following new
proviso:
"Provided further that any de signated competent national
authority designated in terms of any Directive or Regulation of  the
European Union which has access to the acts and documents of th e
courts of criminal justice may, if the requirements established  in the
Directive or Regulation of the  European Union are fulfilled, tr ansmit
copies of such acts and documents  of the court of criminal just ice to
the requesting authority.".
Amendment of article 550A of the Code. 4. Immediately after sub-article (4) of article 550A of the
Code there shall be added the following new sub-article:
"(5) The Magistrate may, upon a request made by the
Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, on a case by case basis a nd
where the information is necessa ry for the prevention, detectio n
and combating of money laundering, associate predicate
offences and terrorist financing, give access to the record of the
proceedings of the inquest and to all documents and materialobjects exhibited in the course of the inquest including thereports of the experts a nd deposition of witnesses:
Provided that this information shall only be used by
the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit for the purpose forwhich it was provided.".
Addition of new 
article to the 
Code.5. Immediately after article 701 of the Code there shall be
added the followi ng new article:
"Power of the 
Minister to make 
regulations.702.  The Minister responsible for justice may
make regulations to give e ffect to any arrangement,
including any treaty, convention, agreement or
understanding, to which Malta is a party or is
otherwise applicable to Malta and which makeprovision for sharing of information between
competent authorities.".
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PART II
Amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act
Amendments to 
the Prevention of Money 
Laundering Act.
Cap. 373.6. This Part amends the Prevention of Money Laundering Act
and it shall be read and construed as one with the Prevention o f
Money Laundering Act, hereinafter  in this Part referred to as " the
principal Act".
Amendment to 
article 14 of the 
principal Act.7. In article 14 of the principal Act, immediately after the
definition "competent authority" there shall be added the following
new definitions:
"Europol" has the same meaning as assigned to it by
Regulation (EU) 2016/794 of the European Parliament and ofthe Council of 11 May 2016;
" f i n a n c i a l  a n a l y s i s "  m e a n s  t h e  results of operational and
strategic analysis that has already been carried out by the Unit inpursuance of its tasks and functions under article 16(1)(a) and
(f);
"financial information" means  any type of information or
data, such as data on financial assets, movement of funds orfinancial business relationships, which is already held by the
Unit to prevent, detect, and effectively combat moneylaundering and terrorist financi ng, other than information or
data gathered or held by the Un it in relation to its supervisory
function under article 16(1)(c), article 16(1)(k)(ii), and arti cle
26;
"law enforcement informa tion" means any type of
information or data, including but not limited to information o n
investigations, freezing or s eizure of assets or other
investigative or provisional measures, and information on
convictions and on confiscation and criminal records, which isalready held by:
(a) any designated authority in the context of
preventing, detecting, investigating, or prosecutingcriminal offences; and
(b) public authorities or p rivate entities in the
context of preventing, de tecting, investigating orCap. 9." "designated authority" means the Executive Police,
the Attorney General and any Magistrate conductinginquiries relating to the " in genere" in terms of article
546 of the Criminal Code;
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prosecuting criminal offences, and which is available to
designated authorities in line with the provisions of any
other law applicable to them;".
Amendment of 
article 27A of 
the principal Act.8. Article 27A of the principal Act shall be amended as
follows:
(a) in the proviso to sub-article (1) thereof,  the words
"Provided that the Unit" shall be substituted by the words
"Provided further t hat the Unit"; and
(b) immediately before the proviso to sub-article (1)
thereof, there shall be add ed the following new proviso: 
"Provided that the Unit may, in exceptional
and urgent circumstances and subject to operational
limitations, promptly exchange financial information or
financial analysis relevant fo r the processing or analysis of
information related to terrorism or organised crime
associated with terrorism,  with any authority, body, or
agency of a Member State considered to have functions
equivalent or analogous to thos e of the Unit under article
16(1)(a) and (b):".
Addition of new 
articles to the principal Act.9. Immediately after article 27B  of the principal Act there
shall be added the following new articles:
"Co-operation 
with designated 
authorities.27C.  (1) The Unit shall, in accordance with
the applicable provisions of this Act, and without
prejudice to the provisions of article 34(3), co-
operate with any designated authority and reply in atimely manner, on a case-by-case basis, to reasoned
requests made by such designated authorities for
financial information and, or financial analysis,where such information is necessary for the
prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of
serious criminal offences:
Cap. 365.Provided that, for the purposes of this article,
the term "serious criminal offence" shall mean the
offences listed in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2016/
794, tax evasion, and any other offence under the
National Interest (Enabling Powers) Act:
Provided further that the  provisions of article
34(4) shall mutatis mutandis  apply in relation to any
financial information or financial analysis disclosed
by the Unit in terms of  this sub-article.
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(2) The Unit may refuse to disclose any
financial information or financial analysis pursuant
to sub-article (1) on the grounds as laid down under
article 34(2)(b) to (f), and it shall provide an
explanation for such a refusal.
(3) Any request received by the Unit pursuant
to sub-article (1) shall be  recorded by the Unit,
which record shall include:
(a) the name and contact details of the
authority and of the officer or employeerequesting the information;
(b) the recipients of the results of the
query or search, in so far as possible;
(c) the case reference number that the
requesting authority assigns to the case inrelation to which the request for information is
made;
(d) the subject matter of the request;
and
(e) the manner in which the request
was executed, including the method used for
the dissemination of information or analysisrequested, whenever such request has been
acceded to.
(4) Records referred to in sub-article (3) shall
be kept for a period of five (5) years from the date on
which the request was received and shall be usedsolely for the purpose of checking the lawfulness of
the processing of personal data.
(5) The Unit shall, upon a request from the
Information and Data Protection Commissioner,
make available any record as referred to in sub-article (3).
(6) In addition and without prejudice to the
powers of the Unit under articles 30 and 30A, the
Unit may request, and desi gnated authorities shall
disclose on a case-by-case basis, any law
enforcement information necessary for the
prevention, detection a nd combating of money
laundering, underlying criminal activity and terrorist
financing.
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Amendment of 
article 34 of the principal Act.10. Sub-article (2) of article 34 of the principal Act shall be
substituted by the following new sub-article:
"(2) Without prejudice to the provisions of article 27A,
the Unit shall not be obliged to provide any information or
disclose any documents, and may refuse to do so if:
(a) such information or document was received
by the Unit in carrying out i ts functions under article
16(1)(a), (b) and (k); or
(b) there are reasonable grounds to consider that
such disclosure could impede an inquiry, investigation orany other proceeding i n course in Malta; orCo-operation 
with Europol.27D. (1) Without prejudice to any restriction
which the Unit may be subject to, the Unit shall,
upon receipt of duly justified requests made by
Europol within the limits of its responsibility in the
performance of its tasks and on a case-by-case basis,exchange any financial info rmation and, or financial
analysis as if the request w as received from a foreign
authority, body or agency having functionsequivalent or analogous to those of the Unit under
article 16(1)( a) and (b):
Provided that, in additi on to the grounds as laid
down under article 34(2)(b) to (f), the Unit may
refuse to disclose any financial information or
financial analysis if:
(a) the provision of such information
or analysis would be contrary to the essential
interests of the security of Malta;
(b) the provision of such information
or analysis would jeopardise the safety of anindividual; or
(c) the provision of such information
would disclose information relating to the
organisations or specific intelligence activities
in the field of national security.
(2) Where the Unit refuses to disclose
information in terms of sub-article (1), anexplanation shall be provided.
(3) The provisions of ar ticle 27C(3), (4) and
(5) shall mutatis mutandis  apply in relation to the
record keeping of requests for information received
by the Unit from Europol pursu ant to this article.".
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(c) providing such information or disclosing such
document may, in the opinion of the Unit, prejudice any
analysis; or
(d) due to exceptional circumstances, such
disclosure would be clearly disproportionate to thelegitimate interests of Malta or of a natural or legal person;or
(e) such disclosure would not be in accordance
with fundamental principles of Maltese law; or
(f) such disclosure woul d be irrelevant with
regard to the purpose for whic h it has been requested:
Provided that any refusal under this sub-article shall
be clearly explained to the body or authority requesting thedisclosure of the document or information.".
Passed by the House of Representatives at Sitting No. 487 of the
12th July, 2021.
ANĠLU FARRUGIA
Speaker
RAYMOND SCICLUNA
Clerk of the House of Representatives
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