Experts believe that Malta is emerging from the global financial crisis, and said as much during FinanceMalta’s Annual Conference ‘Malta's Financial Services Industry - Gearing Up To Sustain Growth’.
International speakers at the conference included Karel Van Hulle, Head of Unit, Insurance and Pensions, European Commission; Eddy Wymeersch, Chairman of the European Corporate Governance Institute and of the Public Interest Oversight Board; Vito Spada is Professor of Banking and Finance at the Università del Salento in Lecce, Italy and Karen Ward, Senior Global Economist at HSBC UK. Local conference speakers included the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, MFSA Chairman Joseph V. Bannister and FinanceMalta chairman Kenneth Farrugia.
Dr Gonzi said: “Not only did Malta’s financial sector escape unscathed from the global crisis but the sector registered consecutive double-digit growth rates. In 2010, the financial services sector grew by 30% confirming its strong fundamentals and its potential as one of Malta’s main economic derivers. With over 9,500 employees, 1,000 of which over the last 3 years, confirms that the sector is fast becoming a key motor of employment growth.”
Chairman of FinanceMalta, Kenneth Farrugia stated, “While Europe has faced sovereign-led challenges since our conference last year, there are encouraging economic headline data for Malta. There is recovery in the tourism and manufacturing sectors. Overall, the services sector remains strong and resilient. In fact, financial intermediation led the FDI’s account for 83% of total FDIs for the six month period to June 2010.”
Eddy Wymeersch spoke about the new EU supervisory system’s affect on financial services practitioners through direct regulation rather than on the need for arbitrary cessation or compliance. This, the European Commission argues, is needed to insure financial stability, market integrity and its enforcement through Commission procedure, not through national jurisdictions.
On a related subject, Professor Bannister presented ‘A Changing Regulatory Landscape’ based on the need to address the financial crisis of 2007/8 with a new system of financial industry supervision in place and three European Supervisory Authorities that will regulate financial market competences. The Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) has already been revised to reinforce capital rules for bank’s trading book and for complex derivatives. Professor Bannister went on to show how the CRD will be revised this year to implement the Basel III agreement that significantly increases the levels of capital which banks and investment firms must hold to cover their risk-weighted assets. Better risk management in financial institutions will be facilitated by rules already brought in (via the 2010 revision of the CRD) governing remuneration and bonuses in financial institutions and reducing incentives for short-term risk taking.
All the presentations and speeches made during this FinanceMalta conference will shortly be made available for members to download from the login area on FinanceMalta’s website on www.financemalta.org. Furthermore, a number of podcasts highlighting the event will also be available.