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04.04.19 9 EDITORIAL BusinessToday is published every Thursday, the newspaper is a MediaToday publication and is distributed to all leading stationers, business and financial institutions and banks. MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN COORDINATING EDITOR: PAUL COCKS CONTRIBUTING JOURNALISTS: MASSIMO COSTA | LIAM CARTER BusinessToday, MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN9016, Malta Newsroom email: bt@mediatoday.com.mt Advertising: afarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt Telephone: 00356 21 382741 THE news that the non-operating Bulgari- an bank Satabank may have new owners is good news, not only for bona fide account holders, but for the Maltese banking indus- try in general. There is another consideration that is well known. It refers to the difficulty or impossibility that salaried workers with a foreign passport have in opening an account. And it does not stop here, it also refers to foreign companies based in Malta. The latter are finding it increasingly difficult to operate without banking facilities. Leading banks have outrightly refused to open banks for small clients citing low risk appetite, with the result that banks such as Satabank came into the picture offering ser- vices to countless employees in the financial, gaming and entertainment business. Bulgarian-owned Satabank, however, was asked to stop operations by the Maltese fi- nancial regulator, the Malta Financial Ser- vices Authority, last year, as it was operating a high-risk model that had taken on clients with suspected organised crime links. They were simply not doing proper know-your-customer and due diligence checks on the source of funds. The serious revelations were made clear on 12 October last year by the Financial Intelli- gence Analysis Unit, which found "serious po- tential breaches" that led the MFSA to order the bank to refrain from carrying out transac- tions. This led to some serious problems for account holders with frozen accounts. The MFSA had said that it could "no longer reasonably be expected to rely on the bank's assurances given the systemic failures to im- plement satisfactory measures" on anti-mon- ey laundering safeguards. While Satabank clients, mainly foreign res- idents, have protested the MFSA's directive to halt any cash withdrawals, the regulator's investigation were hampered by the fact that the bank's data was based abroad. This was further exacerbated by the appointment of an administrator applying exorbitant and unre- alistic fees. The front-page news comes as a welcome surprise that a new administrator will even- tually replace the present administrator. It is also interesting that a law is being piloted by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna and parlia- mentary secretary Silvio Schembri that will create a company aimed specifically at abet- ting financial institutions facing grave prob- lems and removing the role of the adminis- trator. What is however needed is a holistic ap- proach by all the banking sector to sustain the foreign workforce, big and small, and offer banking services. There is a crisis in this sector which can only be addressed with a holistic approach which does not do away with due diligence but of- fers a modicum of normality, so that foreign salaried workers and companies can operate. There is no point bragging about the eco- nomic platform we offer to investors and look the other way when it comes to basic banking facilities. Brexit spill Due to Brexit, Malta has served to attract Bet365, who already employ around 300 em- ployees on the island. William Hill, who re- cently bought out Mr Green, employ another 300 and plan to increase this; and Lottoland, who employ 300 workers in Gibraltar, have plans of having employees in Malta, but not necessarily relocating them. And then there is 888, another gaming giant licenced here in Malta because of Brexit. 888 employ 1,350 employees globally and are setting up offices in Malta too. Addison Global (Mo Play), spon- sors of Man Utd, were also licenced recently because of Brexit. GVC were already licenced by us, but they will be increasing their pres- ence. These, and so many more companies, are looking at Malta. The political calamity in Westminster can play into our hands, even if only a trickle. Revolving doors gone wrong Last week, BusinessToday carried a news story about the sale to the public of 49% of the shares held in Lombard Bank by the citizen- ship fund, the National Development and So- cial Fund (NDSF). It transpired that the sale of 49% will actually go to a strategic partner, not the public. This newspoint surfaced after Lombard Bank Chairman Michael Bonello stated in his annual report that it would be opportune for the NDSF to dispense its shares to the public. The NDSF acquires its funds from the sale of golden passports. Needless to say the message was clear, Lombard Bank should not be asso- ciated with the fund. Little was it known that Bonello was in fact a director on the NDSF and was in full agree- ment with the purchase of 49% of the Lom- bard shares belonging to a Cypriot bank. That was in August of last year. Bonello later left the NDSF and took up the chairmanship of Lombard Bank. Certainly a case where revolving doors poli- cy works against the whole concept of people moving on and about. Good news for Satabank clients

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