AgriBank’s head office at SkyParks will be officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat on Monday.

AgriBank obtained a credit institution licence from the Malta Financial Services Authority last October, and has already started operations.

These are mostly focused on providing highly competitive, tailored packages to the British agricultural sector to finance the purchase of machinery and equipment, apart from paying competitive interest rates on a range of fixed-term, low-risk, guaranteed-rate bonds to UK savers.

Chief Executive Officer Roderick Psaila is upbeat about the bank’s prospects, with the initial reaction from the market exceeding expectations: “We are very happy with how the business is developing. The flow of online funding is increasing and there are an increasing number of requests for loans which the Bank’s Credit Committee has to approve,” he said.

Former EU commissioner Joe Borg, also a former director of the Central Bank of Malta, is chairman of the board of directors.

Chief financial officer Paul Grech is director and Victor Rizzo Giusti is a non-executive director.