I am pleased to agree with Piero Ugolini that the spirit of truth must imply unbiased truth, (‘National Bank of Malta: the unbiased truth,’ The Sunday Times of Malta, September 3).
Truth makes us free, and because with it comes good intentions and indeed love, the beauty of the good of order enhances the experiences of life.
That said, I have checked on the banking law as well as the parliamentary debates at the time, and it appears that there was a controller appointed whose duties at law were “to take charge of the assets of the bank for the purpose of safeguarding the interests of depositors, creditors and shareholders” (Banking Act 1970 Section 18c), and that the government wanted him to remain responsible even when the Council of Administration took over the National Bank’s activity.
If Mr Ugolini will contact me at peter@torregiani.com I can send him a scan of this section of the law, as well as my translation of the relevant parts of the debate, and he can ask to have the translation accuracy checked against the original Maltese version. The debate makes very interesting reading.
Should not the controller have monitored the sale of the assets for the liabilities: certainly at the time the shareholders’ association warned the Council of Administration in writing not to transfer more than half the reserves in that contract with the Bank of Valletta, as well as calling for negotiations on a new banking cycle the island economy evidently needed, and indeed still needs till today.
The Central Bank of Malta included a development objective, a function the National Bank was performing de facto. As in the case of the famous Alan Greenspan intervention on Black Tuesday 1987 in the US it was a natural collaboration that was called for by common sense rather than the contortions engaged in by our Parliament. The bank of last resort function is not spelt out explicitly because of its moral discretionary character, but it points to the good of order.
Like so much in life, the issue is balance. Every person knows that our heart balances the flow of blood circulation supporting our life. Banks are like hearts, which occasionally in a traumatic moment can even miss a beat and continue apace. In my opinion, taxpayers and the Bank of Valletta would have a great international future if it found its way to playing its due role with Parliament in bringing to light the mystery of this National Bank of Malta banking saga. In court, both sides lost something: in Parliament both sides can win everything!
This is why I have petitioned parliament, so that the good of order will be promoted through wise financial engineering avenues in which the danger to the future of man from post-truth will be avoided.
There is really new creation in the Science of the Cross when we join in the love of our enemies. This is the surest way to avoid the surd of bias and tend towards a global cosmopolis consonant with becoming a truly outstanding global financial centre.