Almost a year after the financial watchdog published its first verdict on Bank of Valletta’s property fund fiasco, the authority is yet to publish its findings into allegations that investors were wrongly sold shares in the fund, the Labour Party charged yesterday.

Hundreds of investors are anxiously waiting for advice

“Hundreds of investors and their families are anxiously awaiting advice from the MFSA about whether or not their claim that they were mis-sold a product which was meant for experienced investors and for which they were therefore ineligible, was justified,” said PL’s spokesman on finance Charles Mangion.

The Malta Financial Services Authority had first taken a stand against the bank on June 15 of last year, when it fined BOV and the Valletta Fund Management Ltd a total of €347,816 for regulatory breaches.

Then, in January, one of the fund’s directors, John Ripard, resigned after the authority reprimanded him – following a second probe – for selling his holdings in the fund before the bank decided to suspend trading, leaving many investors high and dry.

The MFSA concluded that Mr Ripard sold his shares while in possession of sensitive information that was not available to the public and that he became privy to in his capacity as a director.

However, a third investigation into the so-called mis-selling of the shares by BOV representatives remains pending, despite repeated claims by the MFSA over previous months that its probe was being concluded.

The Labour Party highlighted these broken promises in its statement, pointing out that in November the authority had said it would make its findings known by the end of the year.

As far back as August 23, 2011, the MFSA had declared that it had reached its conclusions on this issue, the Labour party said, arguing that the authority should therefore publish its position immediately.

“With two years having gone by, the MFSA has had ample time to come up with its findings and it is unacceptable that hundreds of investors are kept waiting for such a long time,” the party said.

The party also pointed out that the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund was still open for public subscription on the basis of a supplementary prospectus dated August 10, which had not been updated with the conclusions announced by the MFSA in May – in violation of the MFSA’s rules.