Dr Victor Ragonesi, who played such an important role in Malta's quest for independence as Prime Minister George Borg Olivier's right-hand man, is a man of a restless mind, who never ceases to stimulate serious thoughts in this island.
With his recent writings on the planned privatisation of Government's shareholding in the Bank of Valletta, he is perhaps unknowingly contributing beneficially to make the Maltese people focus on economic globalisation.
His stand on the issue of the sale of BoV shares to foreigners is however contradicted by the achievements of his political and professional life. He was, with the exception of the then Attorney General Professor J.J. Cremona, the closest collaborator of Dr Borg Olivier, who used to state openly to foreign press correspondents that the economic policy of his government was one of capitalism.
The joke among the close friends of Dr Borg Olivier was that you could never understand his inscrutable mentality before you placed on his face the moustache of Dr Ragonesi, and the bowler hat of Professor Cremona.
There is no mistaking that Dr Ragonesi helped to create a proud Maltese nation through his prominent political work, and in that of his subsequent professional activity as legal adviser to the great house of Forte, which bought the Phoenicia Hotel.
This demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt that Dr Ragonesi was by no means an enemy of economic globalisation. Does anybody in Malta regret the involvement of Forte in Malta's tourism?
This time round Dr Ragonesi has displayed a surprising change of economic outlook. It is completely unexpected of him that he should have displayed the hostile attitude, in his article in The Times and letter (The Sunday Times, May 1) to the sterling work of HSBC in Malta.
That international bank has achieved results for Maltese businessmen which a provincial-sized bank like Mid-Med could never have achieved. It has been able to boost businessmen's international trade negotiations. Maltese lawyers in search of offshore financial work have managed to include China in their operations, where HSBC is well known and highly regarded.
HSBC is not only paying taxes in Malta, but businessmen and the legal and accountancy profession are earning money with the help of HSBC, and they are also paying increased taxes to Government. That is why Malta is one of the richest new members of the European Union.
I have defended the role of HSBC in Malta in the press since the first days of its operation here, and I will continue to do so as news about its operations continues to flow into my office. If Mid-Med Bank was sold at too low a price, one must seek to consider the price Alfred Mifsud put on it when he was its chairman.
It is thanks to HSBC that financial instruments which are capital guaranteed are being sold in these islands. Thus one hopes that the sad story of Maltese households losing millions in Argentina will not repeat itself. Has anybody lost money in Malta because of HSBC, or has there been a large number of Maltese who made a small fortune out of the share price of that hardworking bank, whether in its Malta or international operations?
Dr Borg Olivier would not have been against globalisation had he been alive today. He achieved what he did on the economic front through his encouragement of the land boom of 1969. The present Nationalist government, and the Opposition Labour Party led by Dr Alfred Sant, are demonstrably in favour of globalisation.
The government has called in Rothschilds to advise it on the privatisation of Bank of Valletta. There is no bank in the world with a greater global reach than Rothschilds. If there is a Maltese interest in owning BoV, it can make itself effective by acquiring BoV shares on the local stock exchange.
This will have the welcome effect of bidding up BoV shares, granting a buoyancy to our stock exchange which it badly needs. Investment prospers where money is treated kindly.
Global outlook
The greatest Maltese have always had a global outlook, and it has brought to this island enormous wealth. The MLP has preached globalisation in no uncertain terms.
I refer to a speech by Dr Sant, then prime minister, on February 17, 1997, at the Malta Federation of Industry's annual conference. Entitled "Prospering in the Global Market", it referred to "Maltese industry in the global market a strategy for modernisation and restructuring".
I do not know whether Dr Sant has ever repudiated a single word of his brilliant, erudite speech. The pity is that he did not have much time to put it into practice, as Dr Eddie Fenech Adami and his finance minister John Dalli had when they carried out their lightning operation of bringing HSBC to Malta.
Had they not exhibited "indecent haste" in bringing HSBC to Malta, we would still have been debating that question in parliament. Certain political decisions, even if at first sight dubious, have to be put on the scale of history.
Dr Ragonesi fought for Malta's independence, when the government of Malta hardly had enough money to pay its scavengers. He was right and I will not cease to remind Malta of his greatness. His attack on HSBC was however undisguised.
He mentioned its extraordinary profits and he said nothing about its contribution to the development of high seriousness in its economic life. Does Dr Ragonesi think that Malta could have been welcomed into ERM II, with the best of conditions, had its banking not been showing all signs of boom conditions?
All Malta's banks, from HSBC to APS, are showing returns on shareholders' funds that are about double the EU average.
Malta is an underbanked country whose banks demonstrate supernormal profits, and there is plenty of room for anybody with capital to start a new bank. I believe that anybody with an ambition to take over BoV should demonstrate international banker credentials, and not just be boastful of the extraordinary merits of his Maltese ancestry.
As for Dr Ragonesi's use of the epithet of 'employee' in my regard, I have occupied a senior position in Malta's civil service, and in Mid-Med Bank, and I have taken decisions in my official capacity which resulted to be of international financial significance. I have advised Standard & Poors, and been the promoter of the successful Malta Development Fund. This was a venture capital organisation whose mission is now being inherited by an a Irish international bank.
Malta had great bankers in the past. Marquis Scicluna (Cisk), Tagliaferro and Cassar Torreggiani were great venture capitalists. I would like to pay tribute here to Dr Ragonesi's devotion to his ideal of public service, which has not left him since his proud, great Dr Borg Olivier days, in encouraging rich Maltese to go into banking.
He might be doing it in a way, with which I do not agree, but I pay tribute to it just the same. Dr Ragonesi is a noble figure in Maltese history, but if he cares to write again about the issue of BoV privatisation, I suggest that he tells his clients that it is absolutely inadvisable that anything unkind should happen to the share price of BoV. Anything smacking of monopoly practice, even if unintended, can do harm to banking in Malta, which will also extend to other shares on the stock exchange.
The Maltese people should be encouraged to go into banking. There is room for small private banks in Malta as there is in all European countries. These are needed not just for economic but also for social reasons.
Dr Ragonesi mentioned the social mission of banking in his letter without caring to define it. In an article on German private banking in the Financial Times, titled "Blasts from the past prosper in today's world", a German family banker, Mr von Metzer stated: "Our ideology is completely different from a big bank. There is no star culture and bonuses are team based."
Malta gladly welcomes the participation of Dr Ragonesi in the future banking strategy of their islands, and hopes that his altruism will have imitators. He must, however, care to demonstrate what, in my humble opinion, should be more transparency in his writings. He certainly knows a lot about the interest the coming welcome privatisation of BoV is arousing among the Maltese.
Mr Azzopardi Vella promoted the Malta Development Fund and has advised S&P. E-mail: johnazzoppardivella@hotmail.com.