The Malta Financial Services Authority wants to reassure investors and the public that the investigations concerning Bank of Valletta’s La Valette Multi-Manager Property Fund are still being pursued in earnest, MFSA chairman Joe Bannister told The Times Business.
“Some reports have been finalised and others are close to completion but are still subject to internal discussion and review. Considerable internal and external resources have been dedicated and will continue to be dedicated to the investigations into the various aspects brought to the fore by the operation of this fund,” Prof. Bannister said yesterday.
Prof. Bannister said the MFSA was determined to arrive at the concluding stage as quickly as possible “but naturally due process must be respected”.
He said this has to be done not only to respect the rights of entities and persons involved in the various investigations, but also to safeguard the validity and legitimacy of the work and enquiries being carried out at various levels by the Authority and to protect them “against any possible future attempt to undermine or to invalidate the conclusions due to some lack of alleged procedural or formal deficiency.”
Prof. Bannister said: “We would like to be in a position to better inform the public about what is going on and what we are doing , but this may prove to be unwise seeing that we are contending with entities and parties who are contesting certain claims and refuting certain positions taken by the MFSA.
“The MFSA will continue exerting its best endeavours to achieve an equitable solution to problems and losses faced by investors as a result of the alleged deficiencies identified and examined in the on-going investigations, and to make sure that persons found responsible for breach of the rules will be held accountable for their acts or omissions.”
The BoV property fund has been the subject of a number of judicial protests by about 200 investors in the fund who claimed breaches of investment restrictions laid down in the fund prospectus. They also claimed the fund invested in nine underlying funds that “exposed investors to gearing of more than 100 per cent of their respective net assets”.
In the February 10 issue of The Times Business Prof. Bannister had said: “There are a number of investigations, not simply one, the findings of the first investigation are ready and they have been incorporated into reports and have been sent to Bank of Valletta and VFM for their consideration. Now due process at law has to take place, they have 30 days to respond to the MFSA and then the decisions will be taken.”
Prof. Banister had said the MFSA will consider Bank of Valletta’s replies and then decide what action, “if any”, it should take.