Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1293556
2 NEWS 'INNOVATION in Financial Services: gearing up for the new post COVID-19 era' is the theme of the 13th edition of FinanceMalta's Annual Conference. e event will be held online over three days between 13 and 15 October 2020. Each session starts at 14.30hrs and ends at 17.00hrs. Rudolph Psaila, Chairman of Finance- Malta, said: "e last six months have brought to the fore the importance of innovation in today's financial servic- es industry. We always aim to address the priorities of the sector, and this year's annual conference makes no ex- ception. We believe we need to adopt a holistic approach to innovation. As a jurisdiction, that means we must focus on innovating the core financial servic- es sectors, in particular, regulatory and operational innovation, whilst contin- uing to be creative in developing new products and new markets which are reflective of the current economic, reg- ulatory and legislative climate. Whilst profits continue to be important, we must place more emphasis on the envi- ronmental, social and governance prac- tices of our day to day operations." Psaila said that the FinanceMalta An- nual Conference has always been a ref- erence point for the sector in Malta. "Although this year it will be held in a virtual format, the conference will maintain its strengths: high-quality content provided by a line-up of inter- national and local speakers, whilst giv- ing participants and sponsors the pos- sibility to network on our interactive platform," he said. Prime Minister Robert Abela will ad- dress delegates at the opening of the conference. e first session will be a panel discus- sion on Malta's vision for the financial services industry. Facilitated by Deborah Webster, Co-Founder & CEO at AMANIcircle, the panel brings together key industry stakeholders including Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services and Digital Economy Hon. Clayton Bartolo, the Chairman of FinanceMalta Rudolph Psaila, the CEO of the MFSA Joseph Cuschieri, the Opposition's Shadow Minister for Financial Services Kristy Debono, and the Chairman of the IFSP Wayne Pisani. e conference will then tackle Anti Money Laundering, with two panel discussions. e first one, facilitated by Federica Taccogna, Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, will provide a comparative overview of the Council of Europe countries' compliance with the AML regulations. e MONEYVAL assessment, including Malta's efforts in this regard, will also be discussed. Speakers include prominent person- alities such as Igor Nebyvaev, Executive Secretary of MONEYVAL, Ilze Znotina, Head of the Latvian FIU, Dr Liliya Gele- merova, Senior Financial Crime Advi- sor, Head of Transactions Monitoring and Investigations/UKFIU, DMLRO, Director at Commerzbank, and Alfred Camilleri, Chairperson of the National Coordinating Committee on Combat- ing Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism (NCC). e second panel of the session will analyse Malta's efforts in upgrading its regulatory, supervisory and enforce- ment resources to ensure a robust and healthy financial services sector. Moderated by Aidan Larkin from As- set Reality, this panel will include the Chief Officer - Supervision at MFSA Christopher P. Buttigieg, Director of FIAU Kenneth Farrugia, Alexandra Mamo, Assistant Commissioner of Po- lice, Financial Crimes Investigations Department and Helga Debono Butti- gieg from the NCC. e second day of the conference will focus of sustainable finance. Bloomb- erg's Simone Giudici will facilitate a panel discussion on the role that fi- nancial services must take on this new, emerging sector. Carlos Joly, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership Fellow and Former Chair of UNEP FI, together with David Uzsoki from the Interna- tional Institute for Sustainable Develop- ment, and Malcolm Falzon, Partner at Camilleri Preziosi Advocates, will join Joseph Portelli, Chairman of the Malta Stock Exchange, in the discussion. "Tax: quo vadis?" is the topic of the fourth session. Leading tax experts will discuss what Malta can do to keep its tax system attractive, while at the same time, keep in line with regulation and best practice. Aldo Farrugia from CFR, Ramona Pis- copo from PiscoPartners, John Vella, Associate Professor in Tax Law at Uni- versity of Oxford, Faculty of Law, and Geraldine Schembri, Partner at EMCS will be the speakers on the panel facili- tated by Juanita Brockdorff – Partner at KPMG. e final day of the conference will focus on innovation in the new decade. A Q&A session will be led by Vanessa MacDonald and will feature Michael Xuereb, Chief Officer Strategy and In- novation at MFSA, Stephen McCarthy, CEO of MDIA and Dana Farrugia, CEO of Tech.mt. Two concurrent panels will follow. A session on asset management will be moderated by Kenneth Farrugia, Gov- ernor of FinanceMalta and will include, amongst others, Christian Mackintosh, EY's UK Technology Innovation Lead- er for Wealth & Asset Management, Andre Zerafa, Partner at Ganado Ad- vocates, and Antonia Zammit, CEO at Praude Asset Management. e second panel will focus on new opportunities in the insurance sec- tor. Moderated by Matthew Bianchi, Vice-Chairman of FinanceMalta, it will feature Javier Baixas Vall, Partner at PwC Strategy&, Robert Geraghty, Senior Vice President and Interna- tional Sales Leader at Marsh Captive Solutions, Marsh, Elizabeth Carbona- ro, Chairperson of MIMA, and Joanne Alamango, from Lockton European Brokers Limited. For further information and registra- tion details visit https://conference.fi- nancemalta.org/2020/ Innovation in financial services in the new post COVID-19 era FINANCEMALTA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 1.10.2020