“Bank of Valletta’s investment in wealth management is leaving the desired results with BOV today positioning itself as the leading provider of wealth management services in Malta. Indeed, wealth management is one of the key growth areas at Bank of Valletta with the number of medium to high net worth customers increasing daily”. This was announced by Tonio Depasquale, chief executive officer of Bank of Valletta when he was addressing the bank’s management team during a discussion forum focusing on wealth management.

Mr Depasquale said that a number of external factors also contributed to the success which the Bank was achieving in this area including the relaxation of exchange control regulations and the various investment registration schemes launched by the government over the past years. The latter resulted in over Lm500 million worth of assets being registered and regularized by Maltese people.

Mr Depasquale said that BOV’s wealth management strategy addresses all the financial planning needs of all segments of the customer base through authorised savings and investment officers and financial planning advisors throughout its branch network. All financial planning advisors as well as relationship managers at the Wealth Management Centre are authorised to advise clients on a wide range of investment solutions adopting an open architecture approach. BOV’s Wealth Management Centre is also positioned to offer discretionary portfolio management and trustee services.

Mr Depasquale also spoke about the level of currency in circulation. “Latest statistics show that the currency in circulation amounts to around Lm 518 million. This equates to circa Lm1,250 per capita. “Our advice to customers is to come forward and deposit their excess cash well in advance of the day when Malta will adopt the euro. Once Malta adopts the euro, possibly by 1 January 2008, currency notes in Maltese lira will have to be exchanged to euro anyway and so, it would make more sense to use the idle cash to build a portfolio that would leave a better return to the customer,” concluded Mr Depasquale.

The discussion forum was also addressed by Mario Pullicino, executive head of wealth management, Lawrence Micallef, head of strategic planning, Joe Zammit, head of product and business development, Edith Cachia, manager quality, Simon Azzopardi, head of wealth management and Victor Zammit, head of investments.