Bank of Valletta Chief Executive Officer Charles Borg has told an international conference of academics that Malta’s resilience during the economic crisis was due in no small part to the strength of Malta’s banking sector.
“However, while the government’s role and that of the banking sector as a whole must be acknowledged, it would be remiss of me not to highlight the important role that Bank of Valletta played. Access to credit is fundamental: The European Central Bank survey published in June reported that one in five SMEs said they were finding it harder and harder to get loans, with 13 per cent of applications being rejected,” he said.
“BOV’s pledge has always been to support the Maltese economy and the business community in a responsible manner – and though it is easy to make this claim when our clients are going through good times, it begins to matter when they are facing economically challenging times and find that we are ready to help them through the crisis. Our brand promises of mutuality, supportiveness and long-term relationships are the pillars on which our business model has been built.
“Since the beginning of the international financial crisis in September of 2008, Bank of Valletta has adopted a very prudent funding model based principally on retail deposits. In actual fact, the Bank’s deposits have grown by more than 20% in just 3 years to €5.6bn. This growth in our deposit base has made it possible for the Bank to make credit available to Maltese businesses in a responsible manner. The loan book now exceeds €3.6bn, a growth rate of over 12% in three years – this has no doubt cushioned the recessionary impact in our economy.”
Mr Borg was the guest speaker at the Annual Wolpertinger Management Committee Meeting held on the 30th and 31st August at the Grand Hotel Excelsior, hosted in Malta by the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy of the University of Malta.
The ‘Wolpertinger Club’ is an association of university academics with a common interest in the economics of financial systems and financial institutions. It began as a club of professors who shared these common interests and decided to meet once a year to discuss their research, exchange ideas and develop ways to co-operate in the research and teaching of banking, financial institutions and the economics of financial systems.
The Wolpertinger Club has met once a year for a two-day conference for almost 30 years. This annual conference focuses on empirical research, policy issues and contemporary developments in financial systems.
Each conference has a Jack Revell Session devoted to contemporary policy challenges. In 2012, the Jack Revell session will consider “Bank Credit and Global Economic Recovery”.
The Wolpertinger is a mythical creature in Bavarian folklore, an animal said to inhabit the Alpine forests, usually depicted as a horned rabbit with wings.