Nearly 300 investors have by now filed judicial protests against Bank of Valletta after 13 more yesterday joined the ranks of disgruntled customers who blame poor banking practices for the fact that they lost large investments.

Their protest, the fifth of its kind against the bank, comes after BOV filed its reply on April 18 in response to a previous protest filed against it in March.

The latest protest was filed against the bank and La Valette Multi-Manager Property Fund, a sub-fund of La Valette Sicav plc managed by Valletta Fund Management, a joint venture between BOV and Insight Investment of London.

They referred to all previous judicial protests and made the same claims, holding them responsible for damages. The bank has been accused of misleading the investors of La Vallette Multi-Manager Property Fund.

The first judicial protest was filed by investment company Finco Treasury Management Ltd last August. Investors in other protests have also claimed that the Valletta Fund Management VFM, which is the director and manager of Sicav plc, “significantly failed to exercise the skill and diligence required of it in the selection of the investments of the fund and in its subsequent monitoring”.

Last week, BOV said that contrary to what has been claimed by investors in one of the protests, the Malta Financial Services Authority has no power to publish the result of investigations.

The bank also said that contrary to what these investors had claimed, the MFSA investigations have not yet been completed.