The Malta Financial Services Authority will, by the end of 2021, have employed an additional 160 people specialised in the financial services sector, while 10 staff members have taken up the authority's Early Voluntary Retirement (EVR) scheme, MFSA CEO Joseph Cuschieri told this newsroom.

One of the major elements of the MFSA's restructuring process is an increase in human capital, Cuschieri told The Malta Independent. "All international regulatory organisations and institutions, including the IMF, have been telling us that we need to boost our Human Resources, so that we are able to more effectively supervise a large economic sector such as financial services" he said. 

In fact, the ongoing reforms within the MFSA will see an increase in the number of people it employs, from 320 to 480 by the end of 2021. Cuschieri said that the Authority needs to internationalise itself and, in fact, recruitment has been opened to international candidates who are experienced in the financial services field. There are already 12 expatriates working with the MFSA, hailing from the UK, Greece, Germany and Italy more are needed. 

"I want to see the MFSA becoming the employer of choice in the financial services sector so that we can attract and retain the best talent", Cuschieri said. Asked about the re-structuring, he said that the process had inevitably resulted in the need for a certain degree of re-shuffling, and hence the creation of the EVR. In order to be eligible for the scheme, employees must either be within six calendar years of statutory retirement as stipulated by existing legislation or have completed a minimum of 25 years of continuous service with the MFSA. 

When asked who had applied for EVR, Cuschieri said that a total of 10 members of staff had taken up the scheme. Three of these were part of the Authority's senior management team, two were in middle management and the remaining five employees were in other grades. All 10 employees were aged 55 or over and all had been offered alternative roles within the MFSA as part of the ongoing re-structuring exercise, Cuschieri said.

He pointed out that the scheme is different to a 'golden handshake', explaining that this would usually be offered to an employee in order to make them leave the workplace due to performance-related issues. In this case, Cuschieri reiterated, the Authority wanted to retain all 10 members of staff who had taken up the scheme at the same grade, albeit in a different role or with different responsibilities. 

The scheme was open between 24 October and 16 November of last year and a total of €600,000 was allocated for 2018 and another €600,000 for financial year 2019 - although this amount has not been used in full, Cuschieri said.