Bank of Valletta (BOV) has announced that, its Board of Directors recently approved a policy whereby a Director of the Bank who has ongoing legal proceedings against the Bank or any of the Bank's subsidiaries, while s/he is still in office, shall immediately withdraw from participating in Board meetings of the Bank whilst their case against the Bank is still ongoing.

"This policy shall apply immediately to all sitting Directors."

In its company announcement, BOV wrote that "in view of Mr James Grech's ongoing litigation against the Bank, Mr Grech has been requested to conditionally withdraw from all future Board meetings of the Bank, whilst his conflict persists."

The Board of Directors said it informed the Bank's Regulators about these decisions.

The Shift News had reported that Grech had opened a lawsuit against the bank, asking the civil court to award him damages over what he claims were unlawful actions taken in his respect.

Maltatoday had reported that Grech had filed a court case asking the law courts to find BOV responsible for breaching its internal policies and appoint a court expert to examine whether the bank broke its fiduciary duties. This, it reports, was in relation to an assessment of Grech's directorship by external consultants in November 2019 having been shared with the European Central Bank without passing through the bank's normal channels of reporting.