Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1228992
02.04.2020 2 NEWS Bank of Valletta postpones dividend payouts to preserve capital for COVID-19 crisis BOV heeds European Central Bank call to eurozone banks to freeze dividend payments until at least October 2020 MATTHEW VELLA BANK of Valletta will postpone the payment of its dividend to 1 October 2020, in line with a recommendation from the European Central Bank on the COVID-19 crisis. BOV intended to pay out a final gross divided of €0.026 per share, equivalent to a final net of €0.017. "In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and following a strong recommendation of the ECB on dividend distributions applicable to all European banks, BOV has decided to keep the initial propos- al for distribution of the dividend but make the actual payment conditional to the reassessment of the situation once the uncertainties caused by COVID-19 disappear, the earliest of which, in line with the ECB's recommendation, would be 1 October 2020," BOV said. BOV started 2020 with a robust cap- ital base and strong liquidity buffers. "e Group is closely monitoring the situation and constantly assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In these uncertain times conservation of capital is a priority as Bank of Vallet- ta is committed to support its clients, both business and personal customers, and the Maltese economy by offering a range of supports in a responsible and prudent way." e European Central Bank has asked eurozone banks to freeze dividend pay- ments until at least October 2020 to pre- serve liquidity that can be used to help households and companies through the coronavirus crisis. e Frankfurt institution also asked banks not to buy back shares, another tool to reward shareholders, at a time when policymakers everywhere are tak- ing unprecedented steps to support the global economy. "e coronavirus outbreak is threat- ening the lives of many people around the globe and is pushing the economies of many countries into recession,' ECB supervisory board chair Andrea Enria said. "Unlike in the 2008 financial crisis, banks are not the source of the problem this time. But we need to ensure that they can be part of the solution," Andrea Enria said. He estimated that compliance with the ECB's proposal would keep an extra €30 billion of capital in the financial system. e ECB said it was not asking for those payouts to be scrapped, but lend- ers whose shareholders are set to vote on dividend proposals in upcoming annual meetings "will be expected to amend such proposals in line with the updated recommendation". at ECB has launched a "big bazoo- ka" scheme to buy an additional €750 billion in government and corporate bonds this year to keep cash flowing through the financial system, and a fresh round of ultra-cheap loans to banks and eased rules on capital buffers to encour- age banks to offer loans to households and businesses. e European Banking Authority has also requested institutions to refrain from the distribution of dividends or share buybacks for the purpose of re- munerating shareholders and assess their remuneration policies in line with the risks stemming from the economic situation. FROM PAGE 1 Stanleybet Group commissioned the re- port to the Department of Robotics of its Liverpool subsidiary company, the same department that is creating the Alicia hu- manoid robot and that uses cutting-edge techniques for the animation of virtual products. A mathematical model interpreted the pandemic as if it were carried by a swarm of hostile robots. Every single virus was considered as if it were a small robot ('nano robot') and its effects were ana- lysed, in relation to its movements, with the same logistical forecasting techniques connected to the simultaneous move- ment of millions of software drones with a very low level of cooperation (swarms). is is a technique developed for the first time in the world at Magellan Robotech for specialised software capable of simu- lating movements of virtual entities, but with a high level of cooperation. A specif- ic mathematical model made it possible to overcome the difficulty in identifying the correct level of swarm cooperation in the case of application to the pandemic. Data from the Italian Civil Protection and Health Authorities of the various countries, as well as data from the World Health Organisation, have been included in the model, seasonally adjusted with econometric techniques similar to those used to stabilise the data used in the fore- cast models of the economic research in- stitutes. Moreover, forecasts about the various countries' citizens behaviours have been added on, in relation to their level of obe- dience to the prescriptions of the author- ity. Single forecasting models were creat- ed for China and for the eight countries where the Stanleybet Group is present with its activities: England, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Romania, Croatia, Malta, Cyprus. China, having now very stabi- lised data, has been used as a 'patient' of control and a point of reference, to assign different 'levels of obedience' to other au- thorities that are numerically calibrated on the Chinese maximum. erefore, China has been assigned the '100' level of obedience and, gradually, lower levels to the other countries, ac- cording to a ranking that will not be made public. However, Italy has been ranked third with a 'high' level of obedience: de- spite the tragedy, it is an absolute exam- ple of abnegation from public and private medical personnel, as well as of exempla- ry behaviour from the citizens, now cited all over the world. In order to assess the loss from the forced closure of all its points in the eight countries in which the Stanleybet Group operates, the board members asked to es- timate two fundamental parameters for each of these countries: 1) the peak of the pandemic and 2) the moment in which the number of daily infections would de- crease to 0 (zero) units. Given that peak means the moment when the infection curve changes from an exponential in- crease (concavity pointing upwards) to a logarithmic increase (concavity pointing downwards), and that the number of in- fections at zero is the moment in which the curve reaches its maximum in terms of infected subjects, the model has pro- vided the abovementioned two param- eters for each country, with predictable different outcomes from one country to another. According to the Magellan's model, Ita- ly already reached its peak 4 days ago, on March 27th; after that date, the number of new infected has started to decrease and it will continue its reduction with an increasing logarithmic trend, reaching its minimum (zero infections) on 7 May 2020. e margin of error is 4 days. e suc- cess percentage for the model is 88%. According to Magellan Robotech, there- fore, the number of new infections in Italy could be zero at any time between 3 and 11 May, but the most likely date, highly dependent on the assumptions underly- ing the model, is the date of 7 May. Starting from that date on, it will be necessary that everyone keep the utmost prudence in their behaviours for at least another 14 days. e green light from the Italian govern- ment to a resumption for all the activities across Italy can, therefore, be estimated for the last week of May. No Malta data forthcoming Stanleybet Group has thus far only publicised the report data concerning It- aly; no information on Malta is available, although it was included in the model, as one of the eight European countries where the company operates. Attempts to contact Stanleybet Group proved futile by the time we went to print. Predicted Malta Covid-19 zero infection date still to be published