Bank of Valletta chief executive Charles Borg said the new office would compliment the operations of the bank’s EU Business Development arm, which seeks to position the bank as “the key intermediary for the local business community to avail itself of EU funding opportunities”.
In a statement on its website, the bank said its Brussels office would help it to assist enterprises identify Brussels-based EU funding programmes “and guide them in developing their project idea accordingly”.
In addition to helping Maltese enterprises to tap into EU funded programmes and initiatives, the new office is also expected to strengthen the bank’s existing links with EU institutions and agencies, including the European Investment Fund and the European Investment Bank, the BoV said.
Borg said the BoV had been encouraged to open the Brussels outpost by an earlier initiative, the Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises Initiative (JEREMIE), which was launched in 2011 to improve access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe, as part of a European Commission scheme known as the 2020 Strategy. The BoV won the bid to manage the programme for Malta, and as of the end of September, had approved €11.4m worth of loans, with €25m worth of leads in the pipeline.
“Following the positive experience gained through the JEREMIE initiative, with over 40% of the fund already allocated in the first 11 months of this three-year programme, the bank through its Brussels representative office will be seeking to consolidate further its position as the Maltese financial institution specialising in EU funded financing instruments while, at the same time, assisting our enterprises to tap into Brussels-based EU funding programmes,” Borg said.
A spokesman said the bank was "currently going through the necessary regulatory and procedural operations" and would announce more information about the Brussels office later on in the year.
Leveraging EU membership
Since joining the EU on 1 May 2004, Malta has been seeking to make the most of its ties to the Continent and the international community. The 34th largest island in the Mediterranean, it is located in between Sicily and Tunisia, and is one of Europe’s most densely-populated countries.
It currently has some 58 double tax agreements, and in 2008 joined the eurozone.
Last September the Bank of Valletta posted a pre-tax profit of €64.4m, 35% below the previous year’s €98.9m, weighed, according to its annual report, by the uncertainty in the financial markets, particularly in the second half of the year.
The results were also impacted by a €15m charge relating to a settlement with investors in a property fund, the management company of which the bank partially owned.
The bank is 25% owned by the Maltese government, and counts some 300,000 active customers, out of the island nation’s total population of around 425,000. It does not have any overseas banking operations, but has representative offices in Australia, Italy and Libya.
