Kenneth
Farrugia:
'Quality growth
requires selfless
collaboration
between several
economic
actors'
Bank of Valletta is undoubtedly a
giant in the Maltese financial services
sector and the country's economy.
CEO Kenneth Farrugia sits down
with Kurt Sansone to discuss
the bank's role in the economy,
technological innovation and the risks
that come with it
4
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 AUGUST 2026
INTERVIEW
BANK of Valletta has just an-
nounced interim results that
show the bank turning a profit
before tax of €120 million in the
first six months.
The bank's balance sheet,
its loan book, the customer
deposits it holds, all point
towards an institution that
plays an important role in
Malta's economy and the
communities it serves. All
this is not lost on BOV CEO
Kenneth Farrugia, who de-
scribes the bank's impact on
the economy, and vice versa,
as a "symbiotic fit".
As we sit down in the board-
room of the bank's head office
at Santa Venera, our conver-
sation veers towards econom-
ic growth and the criticism
that this has now become un-
sustainable and detrimental
to the quality of life.
Farrugia calls these diffi-
culties "the pains of growth"
and adds these need to be ad-
dressed in a "more accelerat-
ed manner".
But he believes it is better
having a discussion on how
Malta can manage growth
rather than why unemploy-
ment is increasing and why
growth is stalling.
In business fora we ask ourselves;
do we want to be discussing an
unemployment problem and lack of
economic growth, or the pains of
economic growth and how these should
be managed in a more agile way?
