PM highlights financial sector challenges

Staying on the alert in an unstable international financial situation and the need to encourage young people to pursue a career in financial services were two of the main challenges facing Malta's financial sector, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.

He was speaking at the start of a meeting with officials of the Malta Union of Bank Employees in Valletta as part of the Nationalist Party's consultations for its electoral manifesto.

He reiterated his view that Malta should be a leading player in the financial sector by 2015.

Dr Gonzi said the outgoing legislature has consolidated the financial structure of the country through the setting up of the Malta Financial Services Authority and had also solved issues relating to the code of conduct which placed Malta on a more competitive level in Europe in this sector.

He said: "We are approaching the end of this legislature with a financial sector in a much stronger position but having in the background an unstable international financial situation which one has to monitor carefully".

Dr Gonzi said he believed a second challenge was to find enough human resources to join the financial sector.

And another was to ensure that the laws governing the financial sector, including the banks, would continue to be updated to retain that competitive edge that was attracting institutions and investment to Malta.

Taking part in the discussion were MUBE council members led by president William Portelli as well as Nationalist MPs Mario de Marco and Robert Arrigo and Nationalist candidate Ian Castaldi Paris.