“The authority is aware that, for the past year, a foreign national has been offering to arrange loans of large sums,” said the statement. Apparently the man is helped by a number of Maltese individuals to make contact with potential borrowers. Potential clients may have been asked for down-payments running into hundreds of liri to cover “alleged” administrative costs or other reasons, the statement continued.

The police are currently prosecuting a person connected with these loans, which have resulted in financial losses to Maltese borrowers. In these cases the promised loan did not materialise and the down-payments were not refunded.

The MFSA is informed that similar loan deals are still being promoted. The public is therefore asked to be very cautious about schemes that offer easy access to money and instead to seek advice from licensed financial intermediaries before signing any documents or making payments.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the MFSA issued another warning. This said that the authority has received information that a guarantee, purportedly issued by an Austrian bank and that may have been forged, has been circulated in various banks outside Malta, including Austria, Italy, Hungary and Poland, for fraudulent business activities.

The MFSA said it has the names of nine people allegedly involved in this matter but this did not mean that other people, as yet unknown, were not involved. In the event that anyone in Malta is approached with such a guarantee, he should exercise the utmost caution and seek professional advice. He may also contact the MFSA for the necessary verifications.

A list of licensed entities can be viewed on the MFSA website on www.mfsa.com.mt or obtained by calling freephone 8007-4924.