Bank of Valletta has been instructed by the Malta Financial Services Authority to process and effect the payment of the additional compensation as soon as possible to La Valette Multi-Manager Property Fund investors eligible for this compensation.

These are the investors who did not quality as “experienced investors” as defined in the terms of the fund’s supplementary prospectus.

The list follows an independent file review which was commenced by Mazars, an international firm of accountants and business advisors, in early September and concluded this month.

The MFSA said today it has send the names of the investors who are entitled to additional funds to the bank and it said that this additional payment should be received by all eligible investors free of any charges or deductions.

The bank will now calculate the final payment due and make arrangements for those payments to be made without delay.

The MFSA said it shall continue to monitor the finalisation of this investigation process.

In an e-mail to investors today, the managing director of Finco, which represents a number of aggrieved investors, said that although the MFSA announcing the conclusion of the independent file review of all investors on December 31, none of the company's clients or the financial and legal advisors acting on their behalf, had been advised of one single result.

Paul Bonello wrote: "This affair remains shrouded in mystery, perpetrating the anxiety of so many families.

"We firmly believe that this is symptomatic of a lack of transparency in the way the bank, and worse still, the  regulatory authority, has acted in this regard.

"This behaviour goes against the legitimate expectations of the citizens of this EU member state."