Some of the financial services watchdog’s most experienced executives are expected to ‘retire’ in the coming weeks after being offered lucrative golden handshakes to make way for ‘new’ recruits.
Among those expected to be leaving soon are Anton Bartolo, a lawyer who led the Malta Financial Services Authority’s enforcement unit and served as deputy head of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, industry sources said.
At least five other senior officials were also expected to end their long stint working for the regulator, the sources added.
The ‘offloading’ exercise was being spearheaded by the new CEO, Joseph Cuschieri, who had been handpicked for the job by the Office of the Prime Minster, the sources noted.
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“The senior officials who have been asked to leave have been surgically targeted so their posts are filled by people close to the CEO. Since these senior officials could not just be sacked, they were offered a lucrative golden handshake, paid by taxpayers, of course, so they would go in peace,” a knowledgable financial services operator commented.
The industry sources said Mr Cuschieri, who enjoyed a remuneration package exceeding €130,000 a year, had already embarked on a new recruitment drive placing one of his closest collaborators at the Malta Gaming Authority, which he used to chair, as his de facto number two at the MFSA.
The MFSA was asked what sort of golden handshakes were being offered but no information was forthcoming at the time of writing. However, a spokesman did say that “an early voluntary scheme in order to facilitate a number of structural changes and planned organisational restructuring” was put in place a short time ago.
Again, no replies were forthcoming on how the scheme fitted in with plans announced recently by Mr Cuschieri to significantly increase the number of MFSA employees and to “retain its best resources”.
Sources close to the financial services watchdog expressed concern at certain decisions being made, mainly because these were all being made by a small team of officials, all accountable to Mr Cuschieri.
“As happened in other regulators over the last years, it seems that even at the MFSA power is being concentrated and this is very worrying,” a senior official said, insisting on anonymity.
Still, the industry sources pointed out that Dr Bartolo’s departure “may make some sense” as it was under his watch that the major controversies in which the MFSA was recently involved, particularly the Pilatus Bank and Satabank debacles, happened. However, they were quick to note that the moves were being made mainly to “ac-commodate certain people and the industry”, which they deemed as not being in the MFSA’s interest.
Efforts to contact Dr Bartolo, including via e-mails, failed by the time of writing.
The MFSA has come under intense pressure during recent years, particularly by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, after Maltese banks and their clients, including senior politicians, were mentioned in the Panama Papers and other leaks.
Brussels has been insisting that the financial services watchdog must act independently and pull up its socks to be able to supervise a massive sector that was much larger than the Maltese economy.
The IMF last week warned against the concentration of power at the MFSA and said that enhanced checks and balances were needed in the decision-making process.