Banif’s chief executive officer Joaquim F. Silva Pinto is reported as having said in an interview (January 20) that “the reason for a group like ours to be in Malta is to make Malta the centre of something”.

I am baffled by this statement and trust that Mr Silva Pinto will clarify what are really Banif’s objectives. This is particularly desirable in view of his other statement that the bank will be embarking on a network expansion programme that will add six branches to the current nine.

Such branch expansion could well be aimed at mopping up more local customer deposits. If that is so, this would be a cause of concern. This in view that Banif’s accounts as at December 31, 2010 show that, out of a total of €432 million lent to customers and banks, as much as 64 per cent (€276.5 million) was to the latter. Moreover, virtually 100 pr cent of €276 million lent to banks was due from banks within the Banif group. Thus, until a year ago, a substantial portion of local customers’ deposits (€433.7 million) was being channelled to finance activities outside Malta and seemingly concentrated in one country, that is, Portugal (including Madeira). It is odd that the bank’s annual accounts are shown only on their website and, unlike Bank of Valletta and HSBC Malta and some other local banks, are not published in any local newspapers for the information of the public.

Positive news that emerged from the interview is that Banif Malta finally achieved profitability in the last quarter of 2011. When published, the December 31, 2011 will show to what extent the bank has recouped losses of €10.6 million (42 per cent of the then €25 million paid up capital) accumulated over the bank’s previous four years of operations.