Malta’s ‘investment ambassador’ has been grounded for most of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this doesn’t mean he hasn’t been trying to find ways to attract business to the island. 

Rudolph Psaila has headed FinanceMalta since the end of last year.

In an interview, he told Times of Malta he has spent the past few months trying to find ways to improve investors’ experience of relocating to Malta. 

The public-private initiative he heads promotes the country as an international financial centre with the aim of attracting foreign direct investment to the island.

In a way, Psaila is a sort of travelling salesman but what he is selling is Malta as a financial services jurisdiction. He keeps trying to persuade businesses to relocate, even partially, to the island.  

With most flights grounded last winter and international financial services conferences either cancelled or moved online due to the coronavirus blitz, the business of attracting business to Malta has, as Psaila put it, “been slow”. 

“Well, we haven’t been getting out there so, yes, it has been a tough few months,” he said.

Psaila said FinanceMalta had instead used much of the pandemic period to find other ways of facilitating financial services investment in Malta. 

The entity has been busy seeking solutions for problems facing foreign investors who relocate to Malta with one problem area, banking, featuring at the top of the list. 

As Maltese banks’ risk appetites shrink, the opening of bank accounts for foreign entities operating in Malta has become tougher in recent years.

Psaila concedes that, while this is an issue, he hopes FinanceMalta’s new banking committee will help smooth out some of the kinks. 

FinanceMalta is proposing to introduce ‘common language’ for banking entities, investors and employers to simplify the application process for foreign financial services businesses seeking to bank in Malta. Once they are all speaking the same language, Psaila believes, finding an amicable solution should be easier.

“We are trying to push to have businesses move here and operate in Malta but, then, we have difficulties with opening bank accounts. You can’t have one without the other, so this needs to be addressed,” he said.

Brexit is an uncertainty, just like COVID-19 is a question mark

If the person or business in question comes from the EU, is not politically exposed and poses no particular threat, then it should be quite straightforward for them to get their hands on a bank account, Psaila believes.

Meanwhile, although he may not be travelling the world trying to lure new investments to the island, he is still very much on the front line when it comes to representing the country with the international financial services community. 

Asked how often he is faced with concerns over Malta’s bruised reputation, Psaila did not beat around the bush.  

 “Reputation is one of the fundamental pillars of a jurisdiction seeking to attract investors and we need to have a good reputation. This is important if we are going to attract quality investment,” he said.

It is important, he said, for Malta to step up enforcement and due diligence – not simply to avoid being penalised by international bodies such as the Council of Europe’s Moneyval – but to strive to do things better. 

“For instance, it is important to avoid grey listing [being named among other unreliable or unsafe financial jurisdictions]. But this is a long-term process, not a short-term matter, and we should seek to do things better for the sake of doing them better,” he said. 

In Psaila’s view, the country needs to admit fault where shortcomings were made in recent years, look at those problems frankly and address them. 

Aside from the ravages of the coronavirus, Psaila says the impending departure of Britain from the EU is also a major game changer.

In a similar interview with Times of Malta, Psaila’s predecessor had said Malta wasn’t planning on being a “Brexit vulture” trying to get as many companies as possible to leave the UK and set up in Malta. Instead, the island offered a co-location model that allowed UK financial services firms the chance to remain in Britain while keeping a foothold in the EU through Malta.

Psaila said the approach was still the same and had already started bearing fruit. 

Malta’s position as part of the commonwealth, the language, and similarities between our two legal systems, Psaila said, make it ideal for UK companies to offer services through the island. 

Insurance, he said, had already emerged as a business type that was chasing to co-locate through Malta.

How this will pan out in the coming months, however, is anyone’s guess.

“Brexit is an uncertainty, just like COVID-19 is a question mark. We are operating in a bit of a closed box really,” Psaila said. 

FinanceMalta will be holding its annual conference between October 13 and 15.  
The conference, which will be held virtually this year, includes a who’s who of speakers from local regulators and enforcement entities, including the executive secretary of the Council of Europe’s Moneyval, and a representative of the UK and Latvia’s financial intelligence units.

Also taking part will be Michael Bloomberg, the founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, three-term mayor of New York City and former US presidential candidate. 

Bloomberg’s address is scheduled for October 14 when he will introduce the session on ‘Sustain-able Finance: Assuming Responsibility’.