Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1035530
NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 3 OCTOBER 2018 2 MASSIMO COSTA HEAVY rain and thunderstorms hit the Maltese islands on Monday night, with the downfall con- tinuing throughout yesterday morning and after- noon. The meteorological office at Malta Internation- al Airport has warned that thundery showers, locally heavy, gusty and possibly with hail could continue to affect the Maltese island at times, in the coming hours. Spectacular lightning shows were visible in sev- eral areas of Malta late yesterday, with thick dark clouds covering the skies. Some degree of flooding has predictably oc- curred across prone areas of Malta, with a video shot in the Mriehel Bypass area appearing to show a man, dressed only in a T-shirt and briefs, wading in knee-high water in a car park. Luqa saw 46mm of rain in the last 24-hours, with 27mm having been recorded in Valletta, and 32mm in Xaghra, Gozo, information gathered by the weather stations monitored by the airport's meteorological office shows. Thundery showers are predicted across the is- lands today and will continue till tomorrow and Friday when lighter rain is expected. Conditions should improve by the weekend, with mainly sunny weather on Saturday and Sun- day, but Monday might bring with it some iso- lated showers. Areas of Malta flooded following heavy rainfall The bad weather is expected to last till Friday Thunderstorms hit Malta on Monday night and yesterday, with spectacular lightning shows visible in most areas (Photo: James Bianchi/MediaToday) MATTHEW VELLA Bank of Valletta has filed an appeal before the Court of Ap- peal from some 50 decisions delivered by the Arbiter for Fi- nancial Services on 12 Septem- ber, where the arbiter found in favour of the claimants against the bank. The financial services ar- biter upheld the complaints against BOV in favour of in- dividual complainants who lost their investments in the La Valette multi-manager property fund. The arbiter ordered the bank to pay back the lost savings to- gether with 8% interest. The arbiter was said to have found a clear case of "mis-sell- ing" by the bank when it sold what was a professional invest- ment fund to retail clients. Bank of Valletta can be ex- pected to file an appeal before the Court of Appeal from the decision as it did with the deci- sion of the same arbiter in Feb- ruary 2018. Back then the arbiter had or- dered BOV to refund millions in lost savings with interest, due to alleged mis-selling – specifically €3.4 million plus legal interest of 8% from the date of complaint, to some 500 aggrieved investors. Those complaints had been submitted by stockbroker Paul Bonello of Finco Treasury Management and law firm Re- falo Zammit Pace in July 2016, with the decision having been overdue since 2017. The investors had com- plained that the 75c share offer by BOV in 2011, offered just weeks before sanctions were issued, was insufficient. A further 25c share compen- sation ordered by the MFSA was also considered insuffi- cient. Finco Treasury Management has always argued that it was the responsibility of BOV's investment arm Valletta Fund Management to see that in- vestment restrictions in the fund's prospectus were not broken. The arbiter had confirmed then that property fund had invested in nine other underly- ing funds in breach of restric- tions on gearing. Those nine funds incurred losses of €33 million up until 2011, but BOV issued custo- dian reports where it insisted that no breaches of invest- ment restrictions had taken place, according to Finco hav- ing "misled investors for years since 2006". In the original complaint, the arbiter had also said BOV's initial 75c offer was a breach of consumer rules, and that "the majority of clients were elderly investors who had expected to be entering a safe investment with operators who knew more than they knew, and who would observe the prospectus rules they themselves issued, with self-imposed restrictions they had to observe. This did not happen as observed by both the MFSA and the arbi- ter." The Malta Financial Services Authority also fined BOV six times between 2011 and 2012 for mis-selling the fund to in- experienced investors and for breaching its own investment restrictions. Around 2,300 investors had then accepted the bank's sub- sequent compensation of 75c per share on condition that they waive legal action against the bank should the MFSA find it had breached property fund conditions. Others, represented by Fin- co, demanded that BOV repay them based on the value of the shares at the time of invest- ment and were indeed eventu- ally compensated in full. However, BOV ignored the MFSA's subsequent demand to bring compensation up in full for the other 2,300 who had accepted its original offer. BOV appeals financial services arbiter's decision on La Valette property fund