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28.11.19 3 NEWS Uncertainty in business circles following political upheaval FROM PAGE 1 Ironically, the conference was held at the Hilton Hotel, the flagship development of the Tumas Group, the for- mer CEO of which – Yorgen Fenech – last week resigned all directorship positions within his family's company prior to being arrested by the police in connection with Caruana Gali- zia's murder. A lawyer in the financial ser- vices industry who was in at- tendance told BusinessToday of the uncertainty which had permeated the sector following the political developments of the past days. To date, the lawyer said, the developments have likely not had a direct impact on the sec- tor, although the general senti- ment was one of wishing that the situation would stabilise quickly. "Clients are not going to up and leave Malta just like that," he said, "It's more a matter of how the perception of the in- dustry is being influenced by what it going on." When it came to a possible long-term negative impact, he said that he hoped there would be no deep repercussions. Uphill battle against financial crime Addressing delegates at the conference, acting head of financial crime compliance at the Malta Financial Services Au- thority Federica Taccogna said spoke of the complex nature of the fight against crime in the sector, and the challenges faced by regulators and practitioners in making do with limited resources to com- bat criminals. Taccogna said the biggest challenges of regulators in the industry had to do with tech- nology and limited resources. "e complexity comes from the fact that the criminals have tremendous infrastructure – they own IT companies, re- cruit the best hackers in the world, have top lawyers and unlimited funds at their dis- posal," Taccogna said. "ey don't have to abide by the law and are much freer than the regulators to do what they need to do. Regulators, on the other hand, operate within the boundaries of law, and have limitations, such as those imposed by GDPR rules for instance, when it comes to communicating and getting in- formation from other jurisdic- tions' authorities." "We are facing a battle in which we are essentially fight- ing with a sword and they are fighting with all the best tech- nological equipment," she re- marked. In terms of technology, she said that if regulators and practitioners invested more in technological innovations, this would help solve some of the problems related to resources. It would also improve the effi- cacy of the technology itself. Financial Intelligence Anal- ysis Unit director Kenneth Farrugia underlined the im- portance of providing more guidance to practitioners in the sector to ensure they detected red flags which could indicate financial crime. "We need to work more upon this area and offer more guid- ance and practical examples. As an FIAU, we need to pro- vide more guidance on support on red flags," Farrugia said. He noted that the FIAU had beefed up its resources in terms of staff and technical ca- pabilities, and now had a ded- icated risk and enforcement team and three teams focused on supervision. e Unit, he highlighted, was working with different author- ities, including the MFSA and the Malta Gaming Authority in its fight against financial crime, and was also submitting all of its reports to the FIAU. It was also addressing Mon- eyval criticism and imple- menting its recommendations, while aiming to prosecute more and seize criminals' as- sets, he added. Black Friday performance will be litmus test for retailers Asked on the effect of the developments of Malta's retailers, GRTU CEO Ab- igail Mamo said that the situation at the moment remained more or less business as usual, but that sales during Black Friday would show more conclu- sively whether the political upheaval has had an effect on consumer confidence. "Retail this year has over- all been slower than last year, last year was an exceptional year and in line with foreseen economic developments the slight slowdown was expected," Mamo said, "[Moreover], the days leading to Black Friday are usually slower because people save and leave their spending for when there are the special offers." "Not much out of the ordi- nary has been reported so far, some retail sectors have men- tioned that consumers were focusing more on buying es- sentials and others have told us that all that has been going on in Valletta has inevitably affect- ed business in the area." What would be the most tell- ing would be how sales would do on Black Friday, she em- phasised, and that there would be no major political develop- ments on the day. "e [Black Friday] day has become one of the top most important shopping days and the day that Maltese business- es depend on to make up for slower days and also inject cash flow to buy Christmas stocks," she underscored. "We are hopeful that the day will come with no disruptions so that business does not lose out on this one day that they will not be able to recuperate." Mamo underlined that it was important that consumers felt confident going to the shops and making the most of the offers, since staying at home would mean that money would be spent online, not in the Mal- tese economy. "And that is something that is in nobody's interest," she add- ed. 'Black Friday performance will be litmus test for retailers' - GRTU CEO Ironically, the conference was held at the Hilton Hotel, the flagship development of the Tumas Group, the former CEO of which – Yorgen Fenech – last week resigned all directorship positions within his family's company prior to being arrested by the police in connection with Caruana Galizia's murder GRTU CEO Abigail Mamo

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