Lino Spiteri’s article under the above heading (The Sunday Times, March 31) is very much to the point. His contribution towards ensuring a bi-partisan approach to the revision in 1995 of Malta’s financial services legislation should not be underestimated. He faced strong reservations from then Opposition Leader Alfred Sant.

Without wishing to detract from the bold changes to that legislation enacted at that time when John Dalli was Finance Minister, it is fair to say that Lino Spiteri also played a crucial role way back in 1988 with the enactment of ground-breaking laws that set Malta on the path to becoming an international financial and business centre.

Soon after I returned to Malta in late 1987 (having taken early retirement after holding senior executive posts with Barclays Bank in London and Milan), I was invited by then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami to lead a very small team that was tasked to draw up legislation for regulating offshore business and financial activities and trusts. This fell under the umbrella of Joe Fenech, then Parliamentary Secretary for Maritime and Other Affairs.

We were short not only of human resources but also of office space – four persons to one room in the House of the Four Winds, Valletta. The Malta International Business Authority (MIBA, now the Malta Financial Services Authority – MFSA) saw the light of day on the enactment in 1988 of the Malta International Financial Services Act and the Trusts Act. Even then Mr Spiteri played a very delicate and important role in ensuring a bi-partisan approach despite the known aversion of Dom Mintoff to any form of offshore financial activities.

My role as MIBA’s first CEO at a time when the Authority was just about ready to move to its first premises in Spinola Palace, St Julian’s was shortlived as, regrettably, interference beyond his remit by the then MIBA president left me with no option but to make a quick exit.

The fact remains, of course, that Malta would never have taken off as an international financial centre without full co-operation between the Nationalists in government and Labour in opposition, the latter egged on by Mr Spiteri’s wise counsel.

This legislation was accompanied by a White Paper that clearly set out the Government’s intentions to open up all incentives to onshore (domestic) banking and financial institutions within a period of 10 years. There were valid reasons for this step-by-step approach that Malta was taking in unchartered waters.

I accept that it was the execution of this wider spectrum of legislation that upgraded Malta to the ranks of a fully-fledged international financial centre and for this we are indebted to John Dalli, Joe Bannister and Andre Camilleri (respectively MFSA’s chairman and director general) and also to Lino Spiteri for the Opposition’s support.

Nonetheless, the first small but bold steps Malta took 25 years ago should not be underestimated.