Bank of Valletta on Sunday denied that €393 million of assets belonging to it had been seized in Italy.

Reacting to a story in The Malta Independent, the bank explained that, as already announced, last March the Italian courts had issued a "sequestro conservattivo" against the bank for €363 million.

However it was not true that €393 million were frozen at the time and have now been seized.

"None of the bank’s assets have been seized or confiscated. To ensure seamless continued banking operations, the bank placed on its own initiative the whole amount of the sequestro conservattivo with another bank, pending the appeal proceeding. However, these assets still belong to the bank, held in the bank’s own name and for its own benefit. Therefore, nothing has changed since the bank’s statement of last March," BOV said.

As already announced in March, the bank has appealed the court decision and the hearing of that appeal has not yet taken place.