Financial services sector expected to expand in 2011

Malta’s financial services industry is set to grow again in 2011 as its GDP contribution is expected to rise to 12 per cent, Finance Malta chairman Kenneth Farrugia said during a presentation to the Institute of Journalists.

In the fast-growing funds industry, in the months leading to September 2010, 13 new investment services licenses, 16 fund administrators, and 68 Category 2 licensed investment management companies were established while 434 collective investment schemes were registered in Malta, Mr Farrugia said.

He said a number of re-domiciliations from the Cayman, British Virgin and Channel Islands to Malta were undertaken during this time.

“In the insurance industry, the number of managed (re)insurers and cells in protected cell companies has doubled over the last two years from 20 in 2008 to 41 in 2010. Assets under management have increased exponentially from €555 million in 2008 to €1.1 billion in 2010. “Thirteen insurance managers and 10 captive insurance or ‘affiliated’ insurance companies are now operating from Malta. In the banking sector, there are now 12 countries that are represented in the international banks based in Malta with assets in 2009 of those credit institutions remaining stable on a year-on-year basis at €41 billion,” Mr Farrugia said.

Mr Farrugia’s presentation also included six international attestations from the World Bank as well as those by the International Monetary Fund, Allianz SE, a Brussels-based research institute, CapGemini and Fitch who set Malta’s Country Ceiling credit rating at AAA, thanks to financial sector resilience and signs of a strong economic recovery.