Following an agreement with Bank of Valletta, Malta Freeport Terminals has launched an on-line payment system, using the Bank of Valletta Internet Banking platform, for the payment of domestic full container transactions. This system was developed by Malta Freeport Terminals’ ICT Department personnel together with Bank of Valletta’s technical staff and involved several months of development and testing. Following this new on-line payment service, companies can now pay for the following charges, namely:

• Imports – All Imports Full (containerised cargo) including IMOs, Reefers, OOG and Storage

• Exports – Normal Exports Full (containerised cargo).

Once payment is effected, clients just have to present the transaction receipt generated by BOV’s Internet Banking service at Malta Freeport Terminals’ Main Gate. Clients also have to present the respective gate forms and delivery orders in the case of local imports to be able to collect the containers and the shipping orders in the case of local exports to be able to deliver the containers.

The BOV Internet Banking system is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Malta Freeport Terminals and Bank of Valletta launched this new service during two seminars organised at Malta Freeport and which were well attended by various officials including GRTU and FOI Represen-tatives, Shipping Agents, Haulers and various companies. During these seminars, an on-line presentation of the new service was given. The presentation was conducted by Mr Ray Azzopardi, Head of Multi-Channel Banking at Bank of Valletta, who described the feedback received as being “very positive.” He added that BOV is also willing to make formal presentations on a more focused level to current and potential users of this new service over the coming days. The participants expressed a lot of interest in this service which provides a very straightforward and efficient option for the settlement of Malta Freeport charges.

Various companies have already started using the on-line payment system for the settlement of their transactions and Bank of Valletta is looking forward to supporting the Freeport’s customers who stand to benefit from the efficiency that the system makes possible.