Send money from Australia to Malta
Grey converts a US dollar, pound or euro balance into euro and pays it into a Maltese bank account by IBAN. Bank of Valletta, HSBC Malta and APS Bank are supported, transfers from a funded balance typically arrive within minutes, and the rate and the fee are both shown before you confirm.
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A corridor built by the ships of the 1950s
Australia holds one of the largest Maltese communities anywhere outside Malta. It arrived by ship in the two decades after the war, settled heavily through Sydney's west and Melbourne's north, and is now three and four generations deep. That history changes what this corridor is for.
Very little of it is remittance in the usual sense. What goes from Australia to Malta is mostly estate and property money: a share of a late parent's house in Zejtun or Rabat, a notary's bill, the running costs of a flat nobody wants to sell, tax on land inherited from an aunt. It moves in occasional large amounts rather than small regular ones, and it is nearly always tied to a date somebody else has set.
Malta uses the euro, so there is one conversion and no second step on arrival. Grey pays euro into a Maltese IBAN at Bank of Valletta, HSBC Malta or APS Bank, and the person receiving it, usually a sibling, a cousin or a professional acting for the family, needs no Grey account.
Three steps to a Maltese account
Open your account
Free, about five minutes and one valid identity document, usually the Australian passport of someone whose grandparents came out by ship. Worth doing before the settlement date rather than on it, since verification happens once and the Maltese details can be saved afterwards.
Hold the balance you will pay from
Grey has no Australian dollar balance. You pay from US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, or from pounds or euro, funded by money arriving in those currencies or moved from an account that already holds them.
Send to the IBAN
Enter the Maltese IBAN, check the euro amount and the fee on the confirmation screen, and send. When the balance is funded beforehand, the euro typically lands in the Maltese account within minutes of that confirmation.
What a transfer to Malta costs
Watch the rate as closely as the fee. A provider advertising nothing on the fee line can still take a margin inside the rate, and on a single large estate payment that margin is comfortably the bigger of the two numbers.
The figure to compare is the euro amount landing in the Maltese account. Grey shows that before you confirm, so you can check it against the figure you have been quoted rather than working backwards afterwards.
One conversion, fixed when you confirm
Malta is in the eurozone, so there is exactly one conversion on this route. Your US dollar, pound or euro balance becomes euro, and euro is what credits the Maltese account. Nothing is converted again on arrival.
The rate shown at confirmation is the rate applied, and it does not move while the transfer settles. For a payment matched to a fixed euro figure, a notarial fee or a tax bill, that is the entire point of seeing it first.
Grey against an Australian bank transfer to Malta
Domestically, Australians expect money to be instant. PayID and Osko settle between Australian accounts in seconds on a phone number, and the New Payments Platform has made that the normal expectation rather than a novelty. None of that crosses a border. A euro payment to Valletta from the same banking app goes out as an international wire: business days, correspondent bank steps you cannot see, and a rate that is applied more often than it is shown. Grey converts once, shows the euro figure and the fee at confirmation, and pays into the Maltese IBAN as an ordinary SEPA credit.
What arrives in Malta
Nothing is asked of your recipient. The euro credits their Maltese account as a normal SEPA payment and appears the way a local transfer does.
Maltese banks
Bank of Valletta, HSBC Malta and APS Bank are supported, which covers the notary, the sibling and the estate account most Australian senders here are paying. You enter the recipient's IBAN, and the euro credits that account directly.
SEPA and SEPA Instant
Malta sits inside the Single Euro Payments Area, so the payment travels as a domestic European credit rather than an international wire. A notary working to a date in Valletta usually sees the euro within minutes, provided your balance was funded first.
If they are also on Grey
GreyTag transfers between Grey accounts are free and instant, which suits two siblings, one in each country, settling the same estate between them.
Getting the money into Grey in the first place
An Australian dollar balance is not something Grey offers, so money bound for Malta has to reach Grey as US dollars, pounds or euro. On an estate matter there is usually enough notice to arrange that properly.
Income in foreign currency
Your Grey US dollar account, provided by Lead Bank, carries its own details, so a client, an employer or an overseas payer can pay into it directly.
Moving currency you already hold
US dollars, pounds or euro sitting in another account can be transferred into the matching Grey balance ahead of the Maltese payment date.
Euro already in Grey
Where the euro is already held, there is no conversion decision left to make and the payment can go the same day it is asked for.
Estate and property payments run to somebody else's calendar, a notary's appointment or a court date in Malta. Funding the balance before that date, rather than on it, is the difference between a comfortable transfer and an anxious one.
What Australians send to Malta for
Estates and inheritance
Shares of a parent's or grandparent's house, executor costs, and the payments that settle a Maltese estate between siblings on two sides of the world.
Property costs
Ground rent, maintenance, utilities and tax on a flat or a village house the family keeps rather than sells.
Professional fees
Notaries, lawyers and architects in Malta, usually billing a fixed euro figure that the transfer has to match exactly.
Family and occasions
Money to elderly relatives, and the contributions that go back for a village feast, a wedding or a funeral in a place the family still counts as home.
This corridor is unusual in the Australian set. The four reasons below account for most of it, and only one of them looks like traditional remittance.
Why Maltese Australian families use Grey for this
Opening a Grey account is free, takes about five minutes and needs one valid identity document. The Maltese IBAN is entered once and saved, which is the part worth doing before the payment is due.
Grey covers more than 80 countries, holds balances in US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, pounds and euro, and issues a virtual Mastercard. Every transfer is encrypted and trackable from confirmation through to settlement in Malta.
FAQs
Does my relative in Malta receive euro or Maltese currency?
Euro. Malta is in the eurozone, so the balance converts once and euro credits the Maltese account with nothing further to convert.
Can I use Grey to send an inheritance share to a sibling in Malta?
Yes. Enter their Maltese IBAN, check the euro figure against what has been agreed, and the payment credits their account through SEPA.
Which Maltese banks does Grey pay into from Australia?
Bank of Valletta, HSBC Malta and APS Bank are supported. The recipient's IBAN is the only detail you need to enter.
Can I top up Grey with Australian dollars to pay a Maltese notary?
No. Grey holds no Australian dollar balance. You pay from US dollars, provided by Lead Bank, or from pounds or euro.
How long does a euro transfer from Australia to Malta take?
Transfers from a funded Grey balance typically arrive within minutes, because the payment travels through SEPA rather than as an international wire.
Will the euro amount change after I confirm the payment to Malta?
No. The rate is fixed at confirmation, so the euro figure you see is the euro figure that credits the Maltese account.
Does my cousin in Malta need to open a Grey account?
No. The euro credits their existing Maltese bank account as a normal SEPA payment, and they need nothing from Grey.
Can I pay Maltese property costs from Australia each year?
Yes. Ground rent, maintenance and utility bills can be paid to the same Maltese IBAN, which is saved after the first transfer.
How do I compare the cost of sending euro to Malta?
Compare the euro amount landing in the Maltese account. Grey shows the rate and the fee together before you confirm anything.
What if the executor in Malta also uses Grey?
A GreyTag transfer between two Grey accounts is free and instant, which suits money moving between family members more than once.
Can I send to Malta from Sydney or Melbourne outside banking hours?
Yes. The transfer is made in the app at any hour, and no branch has to be open in either country.
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