Bank of Valletta has signed the lease agreement for its newly established representative office in Brussels. The office is located in the heart of the European quarters in Brussels, at Rue Marie-Thérèse 11, within the premises that house the joint headquarters of the World Savings Banks Institute and the European Savings Banks Group.
The lease agreement was signed by BoV’s chief executive officer, Charles Borg and the European Savings Banks Group managing director Chris De Noose.
Mr Borg said: “Through the opening of our EU representative office, we are consolidating our market leadership as being the key financial intermediary, for the local business community to avail itself of both centralised and decentralised EU funding opportunities and programmes to further grow their business and investment opportunities.”
Mr De Noose said: “The ESBG is delighted that Bank of Valletta is opening a representative office in Brussels. With the large volumes of financial regulation currently being released, it is important to have a representative present to oversee that all respective interests are being looked after. The ESBG looks forward to facilitating further and working alongside Bank of Valletta. Welcome to Brussels! ”
The BoV office, headed by Mark Scicluna Bartoli, will further complement the array of services currently offered by BoV to SMEs in the areas of access to finance and financing engineering products such as the JEREMIE initiative. Furthermore, this office will assist SMEs maximise their trade and investment opportunities offered within the EU’s internal market.
BoV has been an active member of the European Savings Banks Group for the last 10 years through which it has gained a strong expertise on the European integration project, particularly in the areas of access to finance, and EU funding opportunities for small and medium sized enterprises and implementation and associated lobbying on the Single Euro Payments Area project.
The European Savings Banks Group is a European banking association that represents the interests of its 28 members vis-à-vis the EU institutions, with a specific focus on retail banking issues. To this end, it defines and expresses the position of its members in all matters related to the European financial services industry. ESBG delivers detailed research into the evolution of legislation and the retail banking market in Europe and also compares it with other regions of the world.