€1.50
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Chamber takes issue with
Housing Authority's power
to enter private residences
under rental law
Strong first half
2019 results
reported by
APS Bank
PAGE 3
FULL INTERVIEW ON PAGES 10 & 11
THURSDAY 1 AUGUST 2019 • ISSUE 19
WWW.BUSINESSTODAY.COM.MT
A quarter of
Maltese population
has joined Revolut
DAVID HUDSON
BANK of Valletta can no longer prom-
ise super profits as it embarks on a
more prudent business model, the
bank's CEO Mario Mallia said.
Presenting the financial results for
the first six months of 2019, Mallia said
the bank was pulling out of businesses
wholly based abroad.
"Businesses that have no ties with
Malta have had their accounts closed
in a de-risking process. is means a
loss of income but this was replaced
with new income in 2019. We are get-
ting out of businesses that we qualify as
risks that we are not ready to tolerate,"
Mallia said, insisting that all major cor-
respondent banks were de-risking.
He said the bank was facing increased
expenses as it was enlarging its an-
ti-money laundering section, claim-
ing that skills in this area were hard to
come by.
End of super profits,
BOV chief warns
THE number of Maltese-registered users
signed up to online banking platform Revo-
lut has topped 100,000, Business Today has
learned.
In an interview with this newspaper, Chad
West, Revolut's director of marketing and
communications, revealed that 200 new Mal-
tese users are joing Revolut every day.
Revolut's banking services include a free pre-
paid debit card, currency exchange, crypto-
currency exchange and peer-to-peer payment.
e mobile app supports spending and ATM
withdrawals in 120 currencies.