Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1251774
9 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 27 MAY 2020 NEWS ANALYSIS SCOOTER 001 SHARING THE PRESENT, SO WE CAN BUILD A BETTER FUTURE. One app. Over 450 shared vehicles. Pay per minute, per hour or per day. goto.com.mt/download * Rate per minute for Scooter trips on the GoTo Business Plan. Terms and Conditions apply. €1.50 PAGE 2 PAGE 5 Silvio Schembri apologises for 'unfortunate' foreign workers comments Banking customers offered home loan moratorium due to Covid-19 THURSDAY 19 MARCH 2020 • ISSUE 50 WWW.BUSINESSTODAY.COM.MT DAVID HUDSON A rescue package worth €1.8 bil- lion has been unveiled to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the economy. PAGE 3 PAGE 2 Editorial PAGE 9 RIDING OUT THE STORM AND SAVING JOBS Coronavirus Government announces €1.8b rescue package to mitigate crisis Robert Abela BOV registers pre-tax profit of €89.2m • Government to pay companies €350 per employee on quarantine leave • Businesses ordered to shut down temporarily, will receive two days of assistance per week per employee Id-dinja dieħla f'riċessjoni? U Malta? www.illum.com.mt ARA PAĠNI 12 u 13 €1.25 IL-ĦADD 22 TA' MARZU 2020 • NRU 701 'Il-Gvern huwa rrassenjat li se nitilfu x-xogħol. Mentri aħna rridu nsalvawh' 'ROBERT GĦINNA QABEL IKUN TARD WISQ' Il-GWU, l-MHRA, il-GRTU, il-FATTA u l-UĦM mal-ILLUM iwissu li jekk il-Gvern mhux se jħabbar miżuri ġodda se jibdew jingħalqu n-negozji u jintilfu l-impjiegi, speċjalment fit-turiżmu, fir-ristoranti u d-divertiment! ARA PAĠNI 4 u 5 PAĠNI 10 u 11 SUNDAY • 22 MARCH 2020 • ISSUE 1064 • PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SUNDAY €1.95 maltatoday This won't work, Robert EDITORIAL MT2 ROBERT Abela's package does not go far enough and will not work. Malta has entered a war which has destabilised the economy and all its workers. Abela cannot be scared of spending and rack- ing up the necessary government debt needed for a national stim- ulus now: the risks of not acting will be greater than what lies ahead in the next months. He must alleviate economic hard- ship during the epidemic to pre- vent lasting damage to the econ- omy by stopping this recession from turning into the next Great Depression. What Malta needs is a form of universal credit for all, to keep aggregate demand up and so that idle workers at home can return straight to work at the end of the crisis and restore the supply chain. STAY IN, STAY SAFE, WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT/COVID19 Our appeal is simple: Maltese businesses must be sustained by keeping workers in a job with a social insurance that sustains their wages CLAUDIO GRECH 'We cannot allow Maltese businesses to fail. We would be failing society' INTERVIEW MT2 Never before has your support of free and independent journalism been so crucial Support us with a subscription or a donation maltatoday.com.mt/maltatodaydigitaledition KARL AZZOPARDI HSBC'S restructuring process following the COVID-19 pandemic could see the sale or closure of Malta's operations. This was revealed in a Financial Times article that reported how HSBC execu- tives are revisiting a list of operations in countries which are considered as non-strategic, including Malta, Bermu- da, the Philippines and New Zealand. Before the pandemic, the bank had already planned to shed 35,000 jobs worldwide, in a move which could see them save more than $4.5 billion in costs. The plan at that point would have seen the bank focus on its operations in Asia, the area which renders the largest prof- its. Having postponed the decision when the COVID-19 pandemic started, an in- ternal report led the company's board to push for deeper and wider cuts, in view that the pandemic would lump on the bank around $11 billion in bad loans. Bad loans are credit that is being re- paid by companies or people who are unlikely to meet their commitments with the credit institution. HSBC's global shares are currently at their lowest levels in decade, with HS- BC cancelling its dividend for the first time in 74 years. In October, HSBC announced it will close down eight branches across Malta. HSBC Malta CEO Andrew Beane had said the bank was responding to the way customers were banking. "We are delivering enhanced digital solutions, a modernised branch network with new wealth management centres, and more flexible access to a range of self-service solutions. With the clo- sure of some branches, this will all be delivered through a more cost-effective operating model which will help us mit- igate the long-term impact of negative interest rates on the bank's profitability in Malta," he said. HSBC restructuring could see closure of Malta operations