The Conduct Supervisory Unit within the MFSA carried out a compliance review of Trusts and Fiducaries in 2015. The primary aim of this thematic review was to find out to which extent the participating companies have proper governance structures set in place. This was done by assessing three main areas of company structure through a questionnaire mainly related to corporate governance.
The first part of the questionnaire related to organisational structure, business plan, staff, record keeping as well as business development. The second part pertained mostly to the board of directors and the dynamics of this board, while the third and final part was mostly concerned with company operations. Here, information about client numbers, services and the company's operational risk assessment was requested from authorised individuals within the company.
After gathering the data, this was analysed from regulatory and best practice perspectives, with a risk analysis and categorisation conducted for each participant. A total of 60 trustees and fiduciaries, representing around half of all license holders beneath the Trust and Trustees Act participated in this study and the sample population varied in size, type and business model.
On the 30th December 2015, the MFSA published the main issues that resulted from the questionnaire in order to encourage corrective action with regards to its compliance standards.
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