Former National Bank of Malta shareholders have been assured by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi that the government had “a moral obligation” to help them.
A “social gathering” with the Prime Minister on Thursday preceded a smaller meeting between the shareholders’ negotiating team and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech yesterday in an attempt to eke out a compensation settlement agreement for the approximately 300 shareholders.
Sources described the encounter with Dr Gonzi as “extremely candid and cordial”, with one shareholder, Jeremy Cassar Torregiani, saying it was “by far” the best meeting the group has had so far.
The meeting with Mr Fenech was similarly positive, said Mr Cassar Torregiani’s brother, Conrad. “There’s still some distance to bridge but we established plenty of common ground and discussed some options on how to move forward.”
The group of former shareholders have been seeking some form of redress since the National Bank of Malta was seized in 1973 by the then-Labour government.
Legal wrangling went on for several years without any significant progress being registered before its mention in the documentary Dear Dom dragged the issue back into the spotlight.
Dr Gonzi told shareholders on Thursday that resolving the decades-long issue had been a personal ambition of his since the start of his premiership, something subsequently confirmed by one of his spokesmen.
He also admitted, sources said, that there had been a breakdown in communication between shareholders and Minister Austin Gatt, who had been charged with negotiations in the previous legislature.
Any eventual settlement is likely to cost the government – and therefore taxpayers – several million euro.
The matter has caused former Mid-Med Bank chairman Alfred Mifsud to prick up his ears, warning that the government’s duty lay with the public and not “to seek expensive, undeserved settlements with niche sectors”.
Bank shareholders, Mr Mifsud has argued, did not merit the same level of protection as depositors. If National Bank shareholders were given a generous settlement, “what will we tell Maltacom shareholders who lost money after its privatisation,” he asked.
But lead shareholder Milica Micóvíc pointed out that the taxpayer had done very well out of the National Bank saga, with government shareholding having yielded €185 million in dividends, bonus shares and share disposals.
That figure, Ms Micóvíc said, was quite apart from the €142 million the government’s Bank of Valletta shareholding was currently worth.
Shareholders appear to have the government’s backing in this regard, with Mr Cassar Torregiani recounting how the Prime Minister told shareholders that “the taxpayer has been the net beneficiary by far” throughout the affair.
His brother, who was present for the meeting with Mr Fenech, voiced optimism.
“It appears there’s some light at the end of the tunnel. The true test will be whether any of the options discussed will be acted upon. To give credit where it’s due, Dr Gonzi’s government was the first to have actually tried to tackle the issue.”
Although the two parties had not agreed a date for a second meeting, Dr Cassar Torregiani said the shareholders’ negotiating team expected to be in regular contact with the government.