Former Central Bank deputy governor Alfred Mifsud has been appointed non-executive director on Bank of Valletta’s board.
Mr Mifsud had resigned from his role at the Central Bank a year after facing corruption claims first revealed by slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Mr Mifsud’s former partner, Anna Zelbst, the mother of his two children, alleged that he received bribes when he was chairman of Mid-Med Bank, 20 years ago.
The former Central Bank deputy governor has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
He was given the appointment at the Central Bank soon after selling his private business, Crystal Finance, in 2015.
Last year, Crystal Finance was ordered to compensate investors who lost their money at a time when Mr Mifsud still owned the firm.
The financial arbiter had found that Crystal Finance had, in some cases, failed to safeguard its clients’ interests.
BOV said Mr Mifsud’s appointment had received regulatory approval and was effective from December 19.
In the same announcement, BOV said regulatory approval had also been obtained for appointing Deo Scerri as a non-executive director and chairman of the board of directors.
Mr Scerri was first appointed to BOV’s board in April 2013. He was made chairman in 2016. Prior to the appointment, he was the managing partner of Labour Party auditors RSM Malta.
BOV has been accused by the European Central Bank of failing to detect or address risks involving thousands of payments.
According to the leaked report, BOV had not dealt with a number of risk- management failings despite repeated warnings from the Frankfurt-based regulator stretching back to 2015.
The report — adopted by the ECB in the summer after an inspection late last year — called for remedial measures, including assessing if BOV’s top managers are fit for their jobs, and reducing exposure to risks posed by foreign clients by the end of this year.
A senior ECB official told Reuters that BOV had shown “a change of attitude” with its new “de-risking” plan launched in May, but he warned that Frankfurt would consider restricting the bank’s services to foreign clients and gaming companies if it again failed to shape up. It could deploy such measures as part of its remit to protect financial stability.