Following the success of the first Financial Services Conference held by KPMG two years ago, KPMG is organising another conference entitled “Financial Services in Malta: maintaining the momentum”.
The conference will be held on Tuesday May 15 at the Westin Dragonara Resort, St Julian’s. It will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr Lawrence Gonzi and will bring together a host of local and international speakers each with their own area of expertise.
The plenary session will include presentations by Prof. Joseph Bannister, MFSA chairman, and Joerg Hashagen, KPMG Global Head Advisory Financial Services. The impact of the new tax regime on the financial services industry will be discussed by Pierre Portelli, Partner, Tax Services, KPMG Malta.
Participants will once again be offered the possibility of attending various break-out sessions. In the morning, session attendees can choose from sessions on prevention of money laundering, capital market issues and fighting fraud.
The session on prevention of money laundering will focus mainly on issues relating to the implementation of the Third EU Prevention of Money Laundering Directive. The session dedicated to views and opinions of the local capital market will serve as a platform for debate centred around the listing process and the continuing obligations of listed entities, the critical role of Audit Committees of listed companies.
During the session the opportunity will also be taken to present the results of a KPMG study on key data relating to the listed securities market in Malta. The third option will be entitled “Fighting Fraud” and will bring together a series of experts to discuss the importance of the prevention and detection of fraud in today’s business environment, with an emphasis on the financial services sector.
In the afternoon, the sessions will be more focused on the three main pillars making up the local financial services industry: banking, insurance and investment services. The banking session will provide a forum for discussion of topical issues from implementation of the Capital Requirements Directive to a study of changes and trends and the evolving state of the banking industry today.
The debate on the securities industry will concentrate on the trends emerging in Europe on non-retail funds as well as provide insights into the implementation of MiFID in Malta. Finally, the session on insurance will be a platform to analyse the critical issues and forces that will shape the insurance sector in Malta in the years to come. It will also present an opportunity to hear first-hand why Malta was identified as the domicile of choice for the captive insurance company of a global organisation.
The conference will come to a close with a critical analysis of where we are at, where we want to go as a financial services centre in Europe and what we should be doing to get there.