Malta’s corporate banking landscape has seen a marked improvement in the past few years, particularly in facilitating relationships with corporate clients, with stakeholders noting faster processes and greater collaboration between banks, regulators, and clients.
This emerged during a seminar organised by FinanceMalta, as representatives from the banking industry, financial services practitioners and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, discussed challenges and best practices in opening corporate bank accounts.
As evidence to this progress, FIAU Director Alfred Zammit revealed data form the Centralised Bank Account Registry indicates that in 2024, more than 4,800 IBAN accounts were opened for firms and other legal arrangements with at least one non-Maltese beneficial owner.
Representatives from the different credit institutions confirmed this increased openness for corporate business, with Ryan Caruana, Group Chief AFC Officer and MLRO at Bank of Valletta revealing that the Bank’s average time to open corporate bank accounts has been reduced from up to six months to 42 days.
Caruana also shared that BOV now serves over 20,000 corporate customers, adding an average of 95 new relationships each month.
Mark Drago, Chair of the Malta Bankers’ Association’s Financial and Cyber Crime & Fraud Standing Committee, pointed to the adoption of a risk-based approach as a pivotal factor in these improvements.
“A risk-based approach reflects the growing maturity of all stakeholders in the fight against money laundering. It relies on access to accurate and relevant information, including Malta’s enhanced National Risk Assessment and ongoing discussions with banks and regulators,” he said.
Banking representatives from Malta’s major credit institutions, including BOV, HSBC, APS, BNF, Sparkasse and Lombard also shared best practices and recommendations to facilitate such relationships further.
On the other hand, practitioners raised key challenges faced in this context, allowing for an engaging debate aimed at facilitating matters further.
Suzanne Stafrace, HSBC’s Head of Business Banking, stressed the importance of a strong relationship between banks and customers.
“Having a bank account is a partnership - it takes two sides. If the data requested is not factual or is missing, it will lengthen the process. A partnership is an ongoing relationship; if something changes, you need to update the bank. Customers who are forthcoming help ensure the relationship remains seamless,” she explained.
On behalf of FinanceMalta, Chief Strategy Officer Bernice Buttigieg, reaffirmed the Foundation’s commitment to foster stronger relationships between the key stakeholders in the financial industry as part of its efforts to enhance Malta’s competitiveness as an international jurisdiction.
She also highlighted efforts across the board towards facilitating such relationship, including the MBR’s tender for the development of the Central Data Repository (CDR). The CDR is a secure, digital platform that will store key documents and identity credentials in a single e-wallet, easily accessible via mobile devices or PCs.
This modern solution will enable individuals and businesses to share important documents quickly and securely with government entities, eliminating repetitive bureaucratic processes and speeding up compliance tasks.
By incorporating artificial intelligence, the platform will enhance efficiency and reduce the administrative burden, all while ensuring high standards of data security.
Concluding the seminar, Nick Captur and Karol Gabarretta, representing the IFSP and the MBA respectively acknowledged that the seminar served to bring the different sides closer to each other, thereby resetting the scene from any previous misconceptions allowing the industry to move forward.
The spirit of collaboration was encouraged as the way forward to enhance relationships to the benefit of industry and the wider jurisdiction.
This article was first published in The Corporate Times.