The European Commission has sent a letter to the Maltese government asking why it failed to put the fourth anti-money laundering directive into law by the June 26 deadline, local paper The Malta Independent reported on Friday.

Malta is among 14 member states that received a letter asking it to provide an answer as to why is has not yet adopted the required legislation, or informed the Commission that it did, within two months.

A spokesperson for the Commission stated that whilst a reply from the government had not yet been received, the letter had only been sent two weeks ago.

A total of 17 states have been rebuked by the Commission, and a further three member states had only partially put the directive into effect.

The measures require countries to set up national registers showing the owners of companies which can then be accessed by authorities throughout the EU.

Furthermore, intermediaries must carry out extensive risk assessments of their customers in order to fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The directive also broadens the definition of a politically exposed person, which effectively means that a wider variety of people will be subject to stringent checks.

So far, only Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Croatia confirmed the directives were implemented on time.

EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said that this performance was unacceptable at a time when the EU has made the fight against illegal finance one of its top priorities in the wake of a spate of terror attacks.