Bank of Valletta should clarify its position regarding its €35.9 million loan to Steward Healthcare in the interest of its customers and Malta’s financial system, PN spokesmen Adrian Delia and Jerome Caruana Cilia said.

In a statement on Friday, they referred to a court judgement a week ago that annulled the controversial hospitals' privatisation deal originally signed with Vitals, declaring it to be “fraudulent”, and ordered that St Luke’s, Karin Grech and Gozo hospitals be returned to the government within three months.

That judgement also condemned Steward Health Care, which took over the hospitals' concession from Vitals, as having intended to “unjustly enrich itself at the expense of citizens” and engaging in “possibly criminal behaviour”.

Delia and Caruana Cilia said on Friday that the judgement referred to the loan from Bank of Valletta to Steward but the bank had not yet said anything.

They appealed to the bank to clarify its position and to the institutions that had the duty to regulate BOV to ensure that laws are observed.