Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/333851
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 JUNE 2014 6 News Former BOV chairman Roderick Chalmers is MFSA consultant MAT THEW VELLA FORMER Bank of Valletta chairman Roderick Chalmers has been appointed as a consultant to the Malta Financial Services Authority on the introduction of the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The European Central Bank is prepar- ing to take on new banking supervision tasks as part of the SSM, which will cre- ate a new system of financial supervi- sion, made up of the ECB and the EU's financial regulators. The main aims of the SSM will be to ensure the safety and soundness of the European banking sys- tem and to increase financial integration and stability in Europe. Chalmers' repositioning inside the MFSA reflects the 65-year-old char- tered accountant's extensive experience in finance and banking, despite having been berated by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for his stewardship of Bank of Valletta during the La Valette property fund fiasco. Chalmers had vehemently defended the bank's practices when the MFSA fined the bank and its investment manage- ment arm, Valletta Fund Management, a cumulative €550,000 for investment breaches on the sale of the La Valette fund to retail clients. Over €50 million was lost in the fund when its underlying property funds were found to have been too heavily indebted when property prices crashed, wiping out Maltese investors' capital. The MFSA ordered compensation of up to €1 per unit invested, but many in- vestors are still fighting BOV in court to get back all their savings and any inter- est. The La Valette property fund fiasco was a cause celebre for Labour when it was in Opposition, with Joseph Muscat demanding that responsibility be shoul- dered by Chalmers, the government-ap- pointed chairman of the bank. "The government appointed the chair- man and saying he is a good man is not enough. Somebody has to assume re- sponsibility. If nobody does, it would be the politicians who made the appoint- ments who would be held accountable," Muscat had said. The finance ministry has told Malta- Today that Chalmers is not involved in the asset quality review of either HSBC or BOV. Large banks must have all their assets and collateral valuated, so that their li- quidity levels can be tested: the compre- hensive assessment will mean analysing banks' loan portfolios and to see whether these match the collateral on which the loans have been taken out. The AQR of HSBC Bank Malta is being carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and that of Bank of Valletta is being car- ried out by KPMG. The consultants on the AQR at the MFSA are Deloitte. Roderick Chalmers