Clients of Crystal Finance Investments are asking the Malta Financial Services Authority to launch an investigation after they reportedly lost savings they had invested through the company.

But whilst the company is acknowledging that losses may have taken place, it is insisting that it has not done anything wrong, pointing out that it was inevitable that certain investment products would not perform to expectations from time to time. The company also condemned what it described to be "sensational" reporting by In-Nazzjon, which revealed the investment losses on yesterday's edition.

When contacted, Crystal Finance Investment chairman Alfred Mifsud insisted that the investment products in question were "simple products, not complex ones, which were sold properly."

In past instances, the MFSA has imposed fines on fund managers which, it deemed, had acted improperly: between 2011 and 2012, it had fined Bank of Valletta and its subsidiaries over €700,000 after determining that it had marketed a high-risk fund - meant for seasoned investors - to inexperienced ones.

In-Nazzjon claimed that clients' losses amounted to "many millions" of euros, but Mr Mifsud said that quantifying losses was not a straightforward matter, and could not thus provide an amount off hand. However, he said that since the company had many clients, it was possible that their collective losses would amount to millions of euros.

In its own statement, the company also insisted that only a small part of clients' investment portfolio was affected, stating that diversification was the rule to mitigate such effects. However, it added, the more one diversified the higher the risk of an investment underperforming became.

The clients who spoke to In-Nazzjon also claimed that the company was not keeping them abreast of developments, even as the shares of the companies their funds had been invested in suffered a dramatic decline in value.

But Mr Mifsud was adamant that Crystal Finance Investments was keeping its clients informed, sending them updates every six months and also informing them of negative developments as soon as they could confirm the information.

"In 14 years, we have had an impeccable reputation," Mr Mifsud maintained.

"There is always some risk, and this would not be the first time that certain funds did not meet expectations... but judgment should not be passed on this single case alone."