Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has decided to scrap its 2018 plans to abandon its Mriehel offices and find larger premises, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said.

Instead, the authority is looking at re-designing and re-developing its current premises.

Scicluna was answering a parliamentary question posed by PN MP Jason Azzopardi who asked the minister for an update on the MFSA’s plans to move to larger premises by 2021 and to state who had won the tender for it.

The Finance Minister answered by saying that no tender had been issued regarding these plans as the MFSA had simply published an Expression of Interest (EOI) to rent a number of offices at the centre of Malta to see what they would offer.

“Subsequently, in February 2020, after evaluating all the implications of the EOI including all the costs required for this project, it was agreed that the process of renting new offices was halted.”

“Instead, the Authority is evaluating the possibility of re-designing and re-developing the existing premises so that the offices are modernised and equipped to satisfy future needs,” he explained.

This process is set to start in the coming weeks.

The reason behind why the plan has been scrapped was not mentioned in Scicluna’s answer, however, it is being speculated that the plans have been revoked due to the millions of euros that the rented offices would cost the state, from public funds in order to maintain the rented offices.