The Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses and the Ministry for Finance today announced the establishment of a hardship fund for the corporate clients of Satabank. The fund will be managed by Malta Enterprise.

The hardship fund will provide a bridge loan to assist affected companies. The fund will effect and process payments to cover verifiable salary bills. Other critical operating expenses may be considered on a case-by-case basis. 

The hardship fund will be made available as of Monday 26 November 2018 to corporate clients of Satabank with employees resident in Malta, and who have:

·         Paid operating expenses through their Satabank account on previous occasions;

·         Sufficient funds with Satabank to cover the requested bridge loan; and

·         A substantive nexus to the Maltese economy.

Corporate clients in receipt of assistance from the hardship fund agree that, once released, the funds held at their Satabank accounts will be used to repay amounts provided by the hardship fund.

Those wishing to apply for the hardship fund should complete the application form which can be downloaded from the Malta Enterprise website at: http://hardshipfund.maltaenterprise.com/.

On Thursday evening, the the Malta Financial Services Authority said Satabank will start releasing the deposits of the first group of bank clients on Monday.