Members of the British Bankers Association will be meeting in Malta in the coming weeks to see what the country can offer the banking sector after Brexit, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said this evening.

Prof. Scicluna was winding up the discussion on the second reading of the Central Bank of Malta Amendment Bill, which will impose heavier penalties on counterfeiters. The Opposition voted in favour of the Bill, which was also passed in Committee Stage.

The minister referred to criticism by Opposition spokespersons Claudio Grech and Kristy Debono that the post of director general of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit was still vacant.

He said that applications were being processed. However, the unit was headed by a board and the resignation of Manfred Galdes had not stalled any pending investigation.

Prof. Scicluna said that certain journalists were not shrewd enough to differentiate between those who wanted to harm Malta’s reputation to “steal” its business and those who were criticising the government objectively.