I refer to the recent interview with Andrew Beane, chief executive officer of HSBC Bank Malta plc, who remarked that the legal process to realise security to repay non-performing loans is too complex and time consuming.

This phenomenon has a number of negative financial consequences on banks (less capital available for the market) and onsociety generally (property remains caught up in a legal wrangle).

A number of legal practitioners have been clamouring successive governments to implement a legislative programme which addresses private commercial law matters in a meaningful manner, not least to ensure that a licensed credit or financial institution may enforce collateral in an efficient and timely manner.

While additional safeguards should clearly be in place when enforcement of security affects private consumers (for example, in the case of home loans), most developed jurisdictions recognise that enforcement against corporate entities needs to be swift and prompt.

At present, both with the lack of certainty in our procedural laws, together with inherent court process delays, we cannot be surprised that Malta’s ranking in relation to insolvency effectiveness is, regretfully, on a declining trend.