Shortly, Bank of Valletta will be advertising for the election of its new (?) board of directors, save for those appointed by the government and the Italians.

One thing is sure: all the incumbent ones will seek re-election, in the process scaring away others who genuinely believe that the bank’s current messy state has been due to wrong direction for nigh two years and which would probably have been worse but for solid executive management, particularly at branch level.

BOV needs new thinking. This cannot be expected from directors who never even once uttered a single word of dissent throughout long months of the property fund saga, a still-ongoing fiasco.

Which bank director with some self-esteem would hang on in the aftermath of three condemnations by the Malta Financial Services Authority and heavy fines? But, being in Malta, they all did, and indeed expect shareholders to show gratitude by re-electing them next month.

BOV needs a board capable of transforming it into a truly Maltese people’s bank with no single shareholder in excess of 0.1 per cent of total issued capital. It will need to persuade the government and the Italians to buy back all their holdings for eventual re-issue to Maltese citizens, thus ending the ludicrous anachronistic government right to appoint the chairman, while expecting him/her to act totally independently of it. Furthermore, to avoid the unhealthy self-perpetration of the board, at least two directors each year would become automatically ineligible to retain their seat.

I urge those interested in BOV’s future not to be put off, like me, by silly requirements like producing a police conduct certificate, a reference from your the branch bank manager, two references from “persons of known integrity and good repute” and, possibly most humiliating of all, begging a 5,000+ shareholder to nominate you. All in the antiquated memo and articles of association.