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4 NEWS 12.11.2020 LAFERLA, one of Malta's leading insurance pro- viders, has announced the appointment of Keith Laferla as an executive director to the Laferla group of companies. Whilst continuing to head Laferla's Health Insur- ance operation as well as develop the overall busi- ness and its products, the position will see Keith have a direct oversight on the running of the busi- ness at directorship level. e appointment, which came into effect on 12 October 2020, has been de- veloped to reinforce Laferla's focus on the imple- mentation of special projects, with the intention of continuing the pattern of strong growth expe- rienced over the company's course of operation. Keith, one of the second-generation owners of the firm, joined the family-run insurance busi- ness in 2012, at just 19. Earlier that year, he was awarded the ACII qualification, and later received the title of Chartered Insurer by the Chartered In- surance Institute (UK). He has a strong belief in maintaining Laferla's position as a leader in the industry through professional customer service and quality product offering, as well as has a clear focus on expanding the business through a per- sonalised approach. Mark Laferla Snr, chairman and founder of Laferla ssaid he was very happy to add Keith to the Board of Directors. "His hard work throughout the years makes this position truly well-earned," he said. "We believe that Keith's thorough knowledge of the industry and his passion to see the business thrive will push Laferla to continue to develop the brand, as well as maintain excellent customer re- lations." e announcement comes after another strong year at Laferla in 2019, which also coincided with the firm's 35th anniversary. Offering a wide range of insurance products and services, Laferla holds trust and fairness at its core, as it strives to main- tain the utmost standard of quality in all its en- deavours - and is confident that it will continue to do so with Keith on the Board. Laferla Insurance appoints Keith Laferla as director HSBC Malta has rolled out various digital solutions to the business com- munity in Malta during the Covid-19 pandemic. ese solutions, designed to help businesses continue operating in these challenging times, together with the bank's future plans for digitisation, were outlined during a recent webinar titled 'Re-engineering for the future', or- ganised by e Malta Chamber as part of the SME Week. e webinar was addressed by Ema- nuele Vignoli, Head of Global Liquidity and Cash Management, UK Non-Ring- fenced Bank and Europe International Markets at HSBC, who explained how the bank has introduced mobile au- thentication and the use of soft tokens, giving business owners easy and secure access to their accounts. e intro- duction of live online chat specifically for business customers has further en- hanced the level of digital service being offered. roughout this period, HSBC has been proactive in reaching out to its business customers to provide advice on how best to use the digital channels available. e SME Week focussed on efforts to raise digital awareness among business- es owners and to support enterprises who are planning to scale up their ac- tivities. In this context, HSBC Malta is committed to introducing Treasury application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable customers to initiate, track, request and receive payments in real time. Furthermore, HSBC Malta has com- mitted to work on innovations towards enhanced mitigation of cyber-crime risk and has embarked on education initiatives on cyber fraud by raising awareness via anti-fraud messages and on-screen warning alerts. e bank has also held refresher sessions on fraud reporting for internal teams to equip them with the skills to raise customers' vigilance relating to fraud and to direct- ly support Malta's welfare, jobs, innova- tion, and competitiveness. "HSBC has delivered the capability for businesses in Malta to integrate their internal systems and infrastructure to HSBC via APIs," Vignoli said. "Business owners, Treasurers and Fi- nancial Controllers need real-time access to information, globally, to sup- port liquidity management and cash flow forecasting. As a consequence, customers are digitising payments and collections processes to leverage new opportunities and refine their business models, which is increasingly impor- tant as they navigate the current pan- demic." HSBC Malta introduces innovative digital solutions for local businesses Emanuele Vignoli

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