The 15th FinanceMalta annual conference entitled ‘Learning from the past: Looking to the future’ will be held on December 1 at the Intercontinental Arena Conference Centre in St Julian’s. This will be the first fully in-person and face-to-face annual conference to be organised since the pandemic and is considered to be the largest local gathering for the financial services industry.

The conference will feature executives from Malta and abroad, EU policymakers, Maltese government representatives, officials of global standard-setting organisations, renowned academics, researchers and more.

The theme of this year’s conference reflects the challenges that the sector has gone through, and still is going through, in Malta as well as in other jurisdictions. These include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the FATF greylisting and eventual white listing, the Russia-Ukraine war and the rapid increase in inflation and cost of living. FinanceMalta’s event will focus on the lessons learnt but also will take a look forward and see how, collectively, Malta can continue to seize the opportunities for growth in financial services, amid an ever-changing economic and regulatory environment.

The conference will feature keynote speakers from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the London School of Economics (LSE) Law School and more. Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela and the president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola will be addressing the conference. The event will be chaired by Deborah Webster.

The annual conference will be opened by FinanceMalta’s chairperson George Vella and the first panel session will be titled ‘A look at our lessons and achievements in 2022’. Webster will moderate the panel discussion, which will include Helga Buttigieg Debono, executive head, National Coordinating Committee on Combating Money Laundering & Funding of Terrorism (NCC), the MFSA, the director of the FIAU, Kenneth Farrugia, and MBR CEO Geraldine Spiteri Lucas as panellists.

Plans for the financial services industry for 2023 and beyond will be the main theme of a live panel session moderated by the Malta Chamber president Marisa Xuereb. Panellists for this session include Malta Financial Services Advisory Council chair Joseph Zammit Tabona, economist Gordon Cordina and Institute of Financial Services Practitioners president Tonio Zarb.

Banking in Malta in the context of European regulatory developments will take centre stage in a panel session that will include Fabio Axisa, chair of the Banking and Payments working group within the MFSAC’s Action Committee; MBA chair Marcel Cassar and MFSA’s head of supervision David Eacott.

In the afternoon, the focus will shift on to sustainable finance. A fireside chat will take place which will be moderated by financial consultant Steve Ellul, with the participation of Andreas Hoepner and Gabriella Borda, co-founder Avvena − Sustainability and Decarbonisation Advisor.

The annual conference will then discuss good governance. This theme will be debated in a panel session facilitated by Therisa Mallia, lead, policy, advisory & training, Anti-Financial Crime Department at Bank of Valletta. She will be joined by Carmine Di Noia, director of the OECD’s Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs; FATF president for 2020-2022 Marcus Pleyer; and Manfred Galdes, managing partner at ARQ Malta.

The conference will also delve into the topic of digital revolution and digital finance.

A fireside chat on this topic will be led by Wayne Pisani, chair of the Regulated Business Subcommittee at IFSP, who will be joined by Phillip Paech, associate professor of law at LSE Law School as well as GTG Advocates managing director Ian Gauci.

The closing session of the conference will delve into how the sector can attract and develop talent, upskill and reskill the workforce, as well as retain existing talent. The final panel session for the day, moderated by talent adviser and headhunter Fran Moisa, will include Matthew Vella, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation; Identity Malta CEO Mark Mallia; director of the Institute of Business Management and Commerce at MCAST, Andrew Galea; and the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Management & Accountancy at the University of Malta, Emanuel Said.

A networking event for delegates and speakers will be held on the eve of the conference, on November 30, at the Magazino Hall in Valletta.

For more information on the FinanceMalta Annual Conference, sponsorship opportunities as well as to register and benefit from the early bird offers, click here.