The specialised Italian financial services publication Mondo Alternative has carried out an extensive reportage on the Maltese financial services industry, focusing on the funds industry and explored the reasons behind the growth which has been sustained over the past years. The article is complemented with an interview with MFSA Chairman Prof. Bannister.
Significant growth was registered in investment services with 22 licences issued in the various categories. 16 of these were issued at Category 2 level and included a number of UCITS and AIF managers. A number of other licences that were already in force were also revised or extended to provide additional investment services activities. The Authority also licensed 109 new funds (including sub-funds), of which eleven were licensed as Alternative Investment Funds, 78 as Professional Investor Funds and 20 as UCITS funds. More than 620 investments funds are now registered in Malta.
Seeking to explain the key success factors of the Maltese financial services jurisdiction, Prof. Bannister explains Malta's regulatory environment which consists of solid prudential supervision, consumer protection, market supervision and mechanisms for the prevention of money laundering. These are complemented with the economic and financial realities of the island: Malta has experienced one of the fastest growing economies in the Eurozone and an unemployment rate which has consistently gone down over the past years. At the same time, the country's financial situation has experienced significant stability.
The MFSA Chairman explained how the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and the Central Bank (CBM) through the Joint Financial Stability Board have applied a series of measures intended to further enhance the financial stability framework, including measures resulting from the CRR/CRD package. This year, the country followed up with the introduction of other macroprudential measures, such as counter-cyclical capital buffer (CCB), the other systemically important institutions buffer and the capital conservation buffer.
The report also sought clarifications on the decision to maintain parallel AIF-PIF regimes, with Professor Bannister explaining that this allows operators to choose whether to operate as a de minimis manager or to establish collective investment schemes in the sense of the Investment Services Act – a regulatory framework which is popular and trusted amongst processional investors. Also, the PIF regime increases the possible options for the setting up of a fund in Malta, where fund promoters can choose to be complaint with PIF, AIFMD or UCITS regulations.
The Chairman also touched upon the introduction of the Securitisation Cell Companies Regulations 2014 (the "Regulations"), which sought to adapt and extend the protected cell company structure to cater for securitisation activity through the introduction of a framework for the creation of cell companies acting as special purpose vehicles ("SPVs") in Malta.
In conclusion, details on the newly launched framework applicable for notification of Alternative Investment Funds [the Notified AIFs] were provided.
The full article is available on the MFSA website: https://goo.gl/PCasQo
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