The 150 recommendations made by the think tank set up earlier this year to analyse the financial services sector are being acted upon, but will be kept under wraps for competitive reasons for now, according to the Finance Ministry.

Finance Malta’s Budget for next year remains unchanged at €450,000

In his Budget speech a week ago, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech revealed the think tank established just before the summer has made recommendations.

The proposals are mostly related to creating an international market for international pensions and retirement schemes and to strengthen Finance Malta, the public-private partnership tasked with marketing the island’s financial services centre.

“The success of the financial services sector revolves around Malta’s ability to remain ahead of its competitors, to adapt to change and to strengthen its proposition to the potential investor,” the ministry told The Times Business.

“For this reason, we are looking into legislative reforms aimed particularly at strengthening Malta’s role as a base for pension administration and retirement schemes. At this stage, however, they concern international competition in the financial services industry and may not be placed in the public domain for now.”

Some measures have been immediately placed in the Budget Act, others are subsidiary legislation that will be enacted, but a few require entire Bills, and two are before Parliament already. A few recommendations are affected by new EU directives in the drafting stage and authorities are waiting to see how the directives will develop. Some recommendations require new or revised regulations by various authorities and these will be drafted.

“Obviously, some recom-mendations require much more work and are strategic to future growth,” the ministry pointed out.

A newly drawn up report on the new measures also requires better packaging to be used as an implementation tool, particularly for Finance Malta to manage through a continual updating process, the ministry added.

After implementing a retirement programme for high net worth individuals, and winning recognition by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs of schemes established in Malta as qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes, better known as QROPS, an “important impetus” was given to the jurisdiction’s aspirations in this industry.

The ministry said a considerable market could be tapped with niches and specialisations. But much more work will be required by the ­industry and the Government to establish Malta in specific product and ­service specialisations for target markets.

Finance Malta described the outcome of the think tank’s efforts as positive and proactive, particularly thanks to the associations which contributed to the process.

“It was agreed by the think tank to ensure its perpetuity, and discussions are currently underway for an appropriate structure within Finance Malta to act as a conduit of the industry for similar recommendations going forward,” a Finance Malta official said yesterday.

Finance Malta’s Budget for next year remains unchanged at €450,000, but the official pointed out that with the financial and other forms of support it receives from the industry, it is “sufficiently adequate” to finance the promotional plan for next year.