Helping people understand money

If you've ever been stung and lost large amounts of money on the stock market because of bad advice on your investments, or think that the company you are insured with is not delivering, or you have a complaint about your bank, read on.

There is somebody who will listen to your complaints and try to help. As yet we do not have a Financial Ombudsman Service in this country. We only have one Ombudsman who only deals with government departments' administration.

But the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) does have a consumer complaints manager, Geoffrey Bezzina.

Mr Bezzina provides a free service for consumers of financial services. He investigates complaints against financial entities, and then considers each case impartially and on its merits.

He may be able to help consumers who have a complaint they cannot sort out with their: bank, intermediary offering investment services, insurance company, insurance intermediary or stockbroker.

You can get more information on the MFSA Website: www.mfsa.com.mt/con sumer/complaints.htm.

The MFSA also publishes the following booklets free of charge. Understand your insurance make it your policy is a series covering Life, Travel, Health, Home, Motor and a guide to understanding insurance in Malta.

Two other publications worth mentioning are Teaching your children how to save and spend - this leaflet helps parents to prepare their children to be wise consumers, and also to increase their awareness and appreciation of better saving and spending.

And Top 10 finance hints for young adults - aspects of banking, insurance and investing made easy for teenagers. Both publications are in Maltese and English, and are distributed for free. The publications can be picked up from the MFSA at Notabile Road, Birkirkara.

You can get more information on www.mfsa.com.mt/consumer/ educational _material.htm.

Mr Bezzina was one of the speakers at an MFSA seminar in collaboration with the Institute of Maltese Journalists last week.

Media contributors, public relations/marketing personnel and operatives in the financial services sector attended the two-morning conference. It was intended to raise awareness on the need to protect and educate the consumer on financial services, and to identify solutions and a strategy for improvement in response to the ever-growing financial services sector.

The "unholy alliance" of participants, which the first speaker, Dr David Fabri, director, Legal and International Relations Unit, MFSA, referred to, seemed to work quite well, since although the debate was lively and informative, there were little signs of outrage, and no profanity at all. There were not so many journalists present, which is a shame because on the second day, the editor of The Daily Telegraph's Personal Finance section, Ian Cowie, gave a very informative talk explaining why the role of a financial journalist is so important.

"Journalists have an important role to play in educating the public about the available options and the regulatory framework which is there to protect them and maintain confidence in the financial services industry," he said.

That is why the MFSA thinks it is vital to have such seminars for journalists. And although as a small country we do not have journalists who 'specialise', there are still many things journalists can do to help their readers understand better the, more often than not, complex financial sector.

"As journalists we should never lose sight of the fact that many readers will regard these subjects as difficult and dull. Our job as journalists is to make them easier and more interesting.

"This is not always easy because of the complexity of many financial services and the language in which they are described. As journalists, we should try to avoid jargon and explain it whenever it cannot be avoided," Mr Cowie said.

His talk was music to my ears, as I cannot bear pedantic and pompous writers. Finance is already a subject many find opaque; the last thing readers want is an article that confuses them rather than informs them.

"Advertisers and PR people can be relied upon to tell the public the good news about potential rewards and so on. But this will usually be only part of the truth.

"Financial journalists are in business to tell the whole truth. And this will often include the less good news about costs and risks and even, sometimes, the bad news", he told the audience.

This of course applies to many other sectors besides finance and journalists must always be wary of 'news' supplied by businesses.

Mr Cowie warned about potential conflicts of interest between providers and consumers. Keeping a balance, being savvy while not too cynical, and not putting across the idea that we live in a big bad world.

Benny Borg Bonello, president of the Consumers' Association, citing the Argentina crash, decried the lack of investigative financial journalism in Malta. He appealed for more informative financial articles.

Paul Azzopardi, a financial adviser and media contributor, spoke about the dividing line between educating and advising the consumer, David Thomas, a principal banking Ombudsman in the UK, gave a summary of what his work entails and Dr André Camilleri joined him and Ian Cowie in the panel winding up the debate.

Christmas spirit at a price

The Christmas lights in Valletta's Republic Street are spectacular and the organisers deserve praise for the wonderful atmosphere the illuminations have provided.

However, the Valletta and Floriana Rehabilitation Committee have repeatedly voiced their concerns about the damage that the props holding up the lights cause to the city's historic buildings, and the fact that government funds are only given to the Republic Street Business Association. The committee believes that the funds should be shared equally among other streets. Like Merchants Street, for example.

And that modern supports like stainless steel hooks should be used to support the illuminations.

It is not that the committee wants to dampen the Christmas spirit, but the members feel that the way the lights are hoisted should not be allowed. However, despite their repeated warnings, the government continues to subsidise the lights with no stipulations on how they are held up.

The fabric of our historic buildings should not be vandalised in this way by primitive supports for lights, festa banners and other street decorations. And this is me saying it not the committee.

Even the poles in the pavements cause damage. Someone should be responsible to ensure that any decorations intended to enhance seasonal or festa morale are put up in a way that does not harm the already battered pavements further, and more importantly cause no harm to the fabric of our historic monuments.

Museums for all

A friend rang me the other day to convey his disappointment that the free entry to museums for Maltese families every last Sunday of the month no longer applied.

His family had made a habit of keeping those Sundays free, because they felt that the museum visits was a great way to educate their young children.

I promised to find out more about it, so I rang Heritage Malta chief executive Antoinette Caruana for the lowdown. She agreed that it was indeed a pity that they had to stop the free last Sunday option.

But Heritage Malta is badly strapped for cash. She explained that their current budget allocation of Lm300,000 just about covers their deficit.

They need to raise money and it is unfortunate that one of the ways is to charge museum entry.

However, there will be at least four free days every season. And pensioners and students still get a 50 per cent discount.

Besides, there will be occasional free activities at specific museums.

I do understand the dilemma facing Heritage Malta, but it does seem a shame to lose the free last Sunday museum entry. Maybe some philanthropic organisations out there might sponsor that free last Sunday. After all, it is self-defeating to preserve heritage if we then make access only available to some.

Happy Paws

Charity shops are a rarity in Malta, if they exist at all. But last week saw the launch of such a venture. Happy Paws have just opened a charity shop, which is situated in Mensija Street, San Gwann.

I went along to the opening and was impressed by the stock, the way it was laid out and the volunteers who will be helping to run it.

The stock in the shop varies from good quality clothing to a wide variety of knick-knacks, household items, toys and books.

The proceeds from the sales will go towards all animals and all the organisations that look after animals in Malta that need help.

"We started with 'buy an extra tin for charity' in various supermarkets, and we have collected and distributed over 15,000 tins of food, since the beginning of September", said Maike Beekman, one of the organisers.

"We want to work on neutering stray dogs and cats through a voucher system. But our second goal was the shop," Maike told me.

The items on sale are donated, so if you have good quality items you no longer have any use for, please call Maike on 2138-9500 or send her an e-mail at: maike@onvol.net. Please do not deliver items to the shop, since they have no storage space.

Happy Paws are also looking for support from businesses to help with their rent. Once the shop is running smoothly, Happy Paws want to start a 24-hour emergency vet service and clinic, including an animal ambulance.

When that is set up, their next goal will be to get guide dogs for the blind. "This is only the beginning," Maike promised. Anyone with animal welfare at heart should certainly support this initiative, and anyway there were quite a few bargains when I was there, so the shop is well worth a visit.

phansen@timesofmalta.com