Statistics show that Malta has a bright future in the financial services sector, according to Kenneth Farrugia, FinanceMalta chairman, at the Institute of Journalists Review at the Malta Stock Exchange.

In a series of presentations made by FinanceMalta during the event, the organization continued to define its role as increasing the visibility of Malta as a European Financial Centre (EFC), enhancing business opportunities for overseas corporations to sustain their organisation’s growth out of Malta as part of the new jurisdictional offering. To build on that, FinanceMalta will continue to heighten Malta’s visibility and credibility in the sector’s international markets in 2011.

Mr Farrugia said Malta’s financial services have continued to grow, registering year-on-year growth despite the financial crisis. 2011 is seen to be no exception. Underpinning that growth as a European Financial Centre is the investment fund, insurance management and the banking and trusts sectors that have been attracted to these shores, a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework and a competitive fiscal regime. As a result, Malta’s financial services industry is set to grow again in 2011 where its GDP contribution is set to rise to 12% with employment for more than 8,900 people, not forgetting the multiplier effect that these new opportunities provide as more and more services are established on the island. It is interesting to note, he commented, that overseas service providers have now outnumbered local service providers.

In the fast-growing funds industry, in the months leading to September 2010, 13 new investment services licences, 16 fund administrators, and 68 Category 2 licensed investment management companies were established while 434 collective investment schemes were registered in Malta. Interestingly, a number of re-domiciliations from the Cayman, British Virgin and Channel Islands to Malta were undertaken during this time. In the insurance industry, the number of managed (re)insurers and cells in protected cell companies have doubled over the last two years from 20 in 2008 to 41 in 2010. Assets under management have increased exponentially from €555 million in 2008 to €1.1 billion in 2010. 13 insurance managers and 10 captive insurance or ‘affiliated’ insurance companies are now operating from Malta. In the banking sector, there are now 12 countries that are represented in the international banks based in Malta with assets in 2009 of those credit institutions remaining stable on a year-on-year basis at €41 billion.