Bank of Valletta chairman Roderick Chalmers on Friday announced the setting up of a new subsidiary company, Valletta Fund Services Limited, to focus on consolidating the BoV Group's capabilities, effectively positioning itself to service the full spectrum of funds domiciling in Malta.
"Over the past months, we have explored in depth the possibility of setting up a new company to offer its services to foreign funds," he said at the bank's head office in Valletta. "We have examined a number of options and models to take us in this direction, considering how best to attract larger businesses and bolster our market positioning.
"The launch of Valletta Fund Services today is the culmination of all this work, and should provide us with new business opportunities as Malta continues to develop into a competitive and reputable financial services centre," Mr Chalmers said.
Speaking on the bank's role within the process of developing Malta as a financial centre, he added: "One of the things that has happened to Bank of Valletta over the past decade is we have moved from merely being a simple retail bank that takes deposits and provides loans, towards a financial services organisation involved in bringing financial products to an increasingly sophisticated marketplace.
"BOV has also widened its focus to new areas, including efforts to promote Malta as a financial services centre. We see the funds administration business as having potential for being a fast growing sector in Malta - based on a value proposition that has regulatory responsiveness, cost-effectiveness and speed of service as its main drivers."
Mr Chalmers emphasised that through the fund administration activities of another BOV subsidiary, Valletta Fund Management, the group already has a track record of providing services in this area to professional investor funds, albeit on a modest scale.
"Our projections are that the number of funds established in Malta will continue to grow at a very satisfactory rate, and it is our intention that the BOV Group should continue to increase its market share in this area, while also increasing the average size of the funds it manages.
"Valletta Fund Services Limited is the vehicle through which our strategy in this direction will be implemented. Looking ahead, therefore, we are seeking to consolidate our capabilities to position ourselves to service the full spectrum of funds domiciling in Malta, particularly in view of our expectation that the regulator will, in due course, be requiring domiciled funds also to be administered locally."
Valletta Fund Services Limited is taking over all fund administration services from VFM, so the company will start to operate on a sound platform with 13 investment companies and 43 sub-funds which in total reflect over US$1 billion worth of assets under administration, and a shareholder base of just under 50,000 shareholders.
Personnel employed with VFM to provide fund administration services will be redeployed at Valletta Fund Services on a full-time basis. "In view that VFM was the first company of its kind in Malta, we wanted to ensure that the high calibre and experienced personnel would be a strength that the customers of Valletta Fund Services would benefit from going forward," Mr Chalmers said.
Valletta Fund Services is to offer fund promoters a comprehensive range of fund administration services, including turnkey pre-registration assistance, fund accounting, registrar and transfer agency services as well as other peripheral services. The company is committed to the continued provision of fast, practical and innovative back office solutions, and the highest standards at all times and at every level.
Mr Chalmers expressed his appreciation for the support and co-operation that BOV had received from the Malta Financial Services Authority throughout the evaluation and registration process. "The regulator has been a positive, non-bureaucratic force in encouraging BOV to expand our service offering to the international financial community," he said.
Mr Chalmers also announced that Kenneth Farrugia, who has extensive experience in this area of business and who has, since January 2005, been managing Valletta Fund Management Limited, has been appointed as the general manager of the new company.
Subject to regulatory approval, BoV will be appointing Peter Perotti as general manager of Valletta Fund Management Limited (VFM) to take over from Mr Farrugia.
VFM, in turn, will continue to operate as a separate subsidiary company focusing entirely on product development and the marketing of its range of collective investment schemes.