Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/985406
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 23 MAY 2018 11 BUSINESS www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way "MALTA'S financial services industry has registered sus- tained growth in the overall ecosystem. This growth in the industry came from increases of in investment services, in- surance operations, retirement schemes, trusts, securitisations, new fund licences and financial institutions with year on year growth rates ranging from 5% to 17%. Furthermore, last year Malta saw a total of 573 new notifications from international firms passporting to Malta." This was announced by Ken- neth Farrugia, Chairman of FinanceMalta in his inaugural address at FinanceMalta's 11th annual conference entitled 'Fi- nance without Frontiers'. This conference was attended by just under 500 delegates and includ- ed representatives from organi- sations based in 21 countries. Farrugia said that the results achieved so far were driven by the various initiatives of the industry and the visibility pro- gramme achieved through the various events organised by FinanceMalta in an effort to sustain the growth of the in- dustry. Suffice to say, last year FinanceMalta delegates and members attended 54 national and international events in all major financial centres includ- ing USA, London, Switzerland, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore Abu Dhabi and Dubai amongst others. Furthermore, Finance- Malta's digital initiatives helped to increase visits to FinanceMal- ta's dedicated website by 33%. Farrugia expounded on the need of the industry to be more dynamic in working closely with education service provid- ers to offer bespoke educational programmes as well as create an efficient process to recruit foreign nationals. The industry also needs to increase its en- gagement with the banking sec- tor and the Malta Financial Ser- vices Authority to ensure that the industry remains agile in servicing the growth objectives. There also needs to be strong- er industry engagement with the regulator and policy mak- ers to induce financial services innovation, and finally the in- dustry needs to engage into a three-pronged political, regula- tory and industry PR outreach programme to support key ini- tiatives in mainstream commu- nication channels. The conference was also ad- dressed by Prime Minister Jo- seph Muscat, via a video mes- sage, who spoke about Malta's achievements in financial ser- vices and the digital economy, and its progress as a leader in DLT technology. The morning session con- tinued with two stimulating presentations and panel dis- cussions on Cyber security and Bitcoin, Blockchain & Initial Coin Offerings. Two presentations, one on RegTech and the other focusing on the EU supervisory frame- work brought the morning ses- sions to an end. The afternoon continued with four workshops that ran con- currently, where delegates had the opportunity to attend any of the discussion sessions that tackled GDPR, MiFiD II and MiFiR, Payment Services Direc- tive II, and The Insurance Dis- tribution Directive. The final presentation fol- lowed by a discussion panel ad- dressed The Future of Europe. The main sponsor for this year's conference is the world's leading source of news and in- formation for professional mar- kets, Thomson Reuters. Other sponsors include Konnekt Risk- Cap International Ltd, Dolfin Asset Services Ltd, Vacan- cyCentre, Fenech & Fenech Ad- vocates, Alter Domus, Nicholls Moisa Ltd, Reyl & Cie (Malta) Ltd, Castille Resources and Bos- ton Link. FinanceMalta 11th Annual Conference discusses finance without frontiers