The Malta Financial Services Authority's investigation into the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund on misuse of information was now in the very final stages of completion, the authority said.
It said in a statement it shall be making its findings public imminently.
The investigation on mis-selling of the fund to inexperienced investors was also at an advanced stage, and the MFSA would be communicating its final position on this matter to Bank of Valletta by the end of the year.
The MFSA welcomed the Data Protection Commissioner's decision, which forced Bank of Valletta to allow investors to access their Client Fact Finds.
Last May, Bank of Valletta announced a conditional offer to all shareholders to acquire their shares in the fund at a cash price of 75c per share.
This offer was subject to the condition that, upon it being accepted by an investor, such investor would forfeit all legal rights the bank.
At the time the offer was issued, a number of investors had filed complaints with the MFSA which were still pending. The MFSA was reviewing these complaints, the number of which was unprecedented.
The investors were being required by the bank to decide by June 30 whether to accept or reject the offer, and consequently whether to forfeit their legal rights against the bank, and this at a stage where their complaint was still being investigated by the MFSA.
The authority experienced delays in reviewing the complaints partly due to an uncooperative attitude adopted by Bank of Valletta.
In view of this state of affairs, on June 28, the MFSA had issued a directive to Bank of Valletta obliging it to ensure that any acceptance of the offer to investors was without prejudice to any right which such investors who had either filed a complaint or were otherwise ineligible to acquire units in the fund because they did not satisfy the legal criteria of "experienced investors" may have to compensation or to being reinstated in the financial position obtaining prior to their investment in the fund.
Bank of Valletta recently appealed to the Financial Services Tribunal contesting this directive and was seeking to have it revoked.
It was also requesting the Financial Services Tribunal to keep the proceedings secret and to hold its sittings in respect of this appeal behind closed doors.
The MFSA said it strongly opposed these requests as it believed that justice was best served if proceedings were held in open court, and this in the interest of transparency and accountability to the public.