It was with great surprise that this writer was reading a book and found in it these words: “the most popular Maltese newspaper” and realised the writer was referring to this paper, The Malta Business Weekly.

Now, there is no way in which this weekly paper can be called “the most popular Maltese newspaper”. But that’s only part of the story.

To put everything in context, the book is Creditinfo Group Part 1 by Reynir Gretarsson.

As the interview with Mr Gretarsson two weeks ago showed, Creditinfo began in Iceland but the first country it expanded to in its 20 years of existence was Malta.

In the issue of 10 October 2002, this paper carried this story:

“The Malta Chamber of Commerce takes exception to certain comments made by Reynir Gretarsson and Karl Xuereb in an interview appearing in The Malta Business Weekly last week. The two are Group CEO and general manager, respectively, of Lanstraust Malta Ltd – an international subsidiary of an Icelandic credit reference company being set up in Malta.

“In principle, the Chamber is not against the setting up of credit agencies whose services are conducive towards hedging credit risk for local companies. It favours similar initiatives which expose companies that constitute a genuine threat to other firms.

“However, the Chamber is categorically opposed to the methods being adopted by Lanstraust in carrying out its research. It certainly does not favour scaremongering schemes such as that being performed by this company. Based on haphazard research, this firm threatens to throw bad light on local companies by placing them on a public defaulters’ list when they may not deserve to be listed.

“The sector in which this international firm is operating is highly sensitive because the reputation of local businesses is at stake. Consequently, the situation permits no margin of error and the firm must ensure its information is absolutely flawless. Judging from information reaching the Chamber thus far, and the list of businesses receiving Lanstraust letters, it is more than evident that the methods adopted by this company leave much to be desired and pose a potential risk not only to the listed firms concerned but also to the potential clients of Lanstraust.

“Unless it is satisfied that the system and research methods of Lanstraust are foolproof, the Chamber will forcefully object to the operations of this credit agency on the grounds that the information it is selling is highly dubious and unreliable. The Chamber will not allow the business community to be put on the defensive by similar unreliable methods and would not exclude recommending to its members not to cooperate in the scheme.”

That was 10 years ago. In his book, Mr Gretarsson continues: “Everything turned out fine, though, and our lawyers just laughed at this and told me not to worry. If this would have happened in Iceland, we would most likely have been finished. In this case, however, the person in question had apparently acted out of anger, without the backing of his association. The funny thing is that in order to prevent just such a thing, I had met with a lot of stakeholders, including the head of the Chamber of Commerce. So, I had had dinner with him the week before he denounced us.”

In the end, the Maltese branch of Creditinfo has remained in Malta all through these years and has even grown so much as to become part of the local scene.

Creditinfo International then expanded into other countries with varying degrees of success. Its next venture was Cyprus and the book dwells quite colourfully on the personality of the man chosen to lead the company there. As happens everywhere in business, some ventures proved to be profitable, while others less so.

It cannot be argued that the Malta experience that Creditinfo faced when it ventured out of Iceland and came to Malta was a Malta experience that other companies that set up business here still have to face. However, any new jurisdiction carries with it its own foibles, quirks and sometimes obstacles. We are certain that had Creditinfo come to Malta now, it may not have been made to face such problems.

Malta does not emerge unscathed from these memoirs but anyway the incident itself was limited and quickly circumscribed. And the Maltese employees of the company themselves helped remove any stigma that may have been attached to the company by this paper when it carried the Chamber’s press release.