Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1163844
NEWS MALTA'S major banks and other members of the banking industry have amassed assets of around €43.5 billion, of which roughly half was held by the six core domestic banks: APS, BOV, BNF, HSBC, Lombard and MeDirect (€23.7bn). Customer deposits held with the core domestic banks main- tained their upward trend, in- creasing by a further 5.5% and establishing another record high of €19.3 billion (2017: €18.3bn). Total deposits at all member banks of the Malta Banking Association however stood at €24.2 billion, down by almost 5% over last year. "It is interesting to note that despite that the Maltese econo- my still displays a very high us- age of cash and notwithstand- ing the historically low interest rates payable on deposits, the latter still experienced steady growth at the core domestic banks, indicating the continued trust of Maltese households in the local banking sector," MBA secretary-general Karol Gabar- retta said. In general the banking sec- tor in Malta continued to be well capitalised and highly liquid, despite experiencing some degree of downsizing through de-risking processes. The three categories as defined by the Central Bank of Malta are referred to as, core domes- tic banks, non-core domestic banks and international banks. While all three categories of banks comprising the local sec- tor continued to be profitable in 2018, the overall levels of profitability were down across all the categories. Core domestic banks remain very much involved in the fi- nancing of the real economy de-spite the impact from per- sistent low interest rates and the increase in compliance and risk management costs to mitigate risks to financial sta- bility. During 2018, credit pro- vided by these banks notably increased by 8.3% and stood at €11.4 billion at the year-end (2017: €10.6bn). Banks in Malta have con- tinued to engage in mortgage contracts, with almost 60% of resi-dent loans property-relat- ed. "The Central Bank's Finan- cial Stability Report for 2018 under-lined that core domes- tic banks remained supportive of domestic financing needs with lend-ing to resident NFCs [non-financial corporations] turning positive following sev- eral years of contraction," Gab- aretta said. Malta's banks employ 4,802 at a payroll cost of €186.6 mil- lion, and tax on profits in 2018 amounted to €68.1 million, while €19.9 million was paid out in dividends to resident shareholders. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 Talk to us | 2131 2020 | bov.com Issued by Bank of Valle a p.l.c., 58, Triq San Żakkarija, Il-Belt Valle a VLT 1130. Bank of Valle a p.l.c. is a public limited company regulated by the MFSA and is licensed to carry out the business of banking in terms of the Banking Act (Cap. 371 of the Laws of Malta). IMPROVING YOUR INTERNET BANKING EXPERIENCE Your internet banking Securekey is now available on the BOV Mobile App. Download yours now. BOV INTERNET BANKING Bank deposits grow despite historically low interest rates