A euro is always a euro... whether in Malta or abroad

Can anybody explain why, a year after joining the eurozone, Maltese banks still require 30 days to process any cheque other than their own?

Older readers will remember when it was suggested that Malta should become a "Switzerland in the Mediterranean" - meaning that it could be an off-shore island for banking for the rest of Europe. A small majority of voters realised this was a lunatic idea and opted for the euro zone, instead. They presumably realised that nobody in his right mind would trust a Maltese bank to handle money efficiently.

But even today the local banks have cynically missed the plot. They somehow see "foreign" euros as being different from Malta's new currency. I can shift money - euro or sterling - on the Internet in a matter of minutes, but the Maltese people who do this for a living are still working on a system that could be operated faster on horseback.

Do the banks see a difference between a Maltese euro and all the others? And do the customers not realise that this is just a bankers' scam - an attempt to get even more money out of them for holding their hard-earned money? Years ago I threatened to remove my meagre savings from Mid-Med Bank if they insisted on delaying transfers for 30 days. The general manager was immediately on the phone, claiming that it was an international requirement to prevent "money laundering". But he agreed that I did not sound like a Mafia don, and that my account didn't look as if it was being used to finance drug trafficking, so he said he could make an exception in my case, and clear all cheques (they were sterling, in those days) in only four days.

Isn't it time that all bank customers kicked up a stink about it, and told their bankers to wake up and get into the real world? Because what they are currently telling customers is: If you don't like paying and waiting, stop accepting payment by cheque.

But not all businesses can accept credit cards (even when the phone lines are working and there are no power cuts) and not everybody wants to carry wads of cash.

I was once told that payment by cheque was introduced to Malta many decades ago by Count "Cisk" Scicluna. I will bet that they were cleared quicker in his day.