A quarter century of discreet discretion

In this supposedly enlightened internet age the attention span of most professionals, and indeed that of whole industries, has become shorter than ever and at times I believe that span is equal to the average interval between one real or perceived ‘crisis’ and the next. As news cycles become ever shorter the same is true for the aforementioned gap in between major crises and attention-grabbing scoops.

This is compounded by the fact that much of the media today is politically-charged and, in Malta at least, is often directly funded by political parties. It is through that tinted lens that I have noted a changing of the guard taking place at the Malta Financial Services Authority. Most people’s attention is, understandably, on the new incumbent but we must also remember the man who held that auspicious body’s reins for practically a quarter of a century and steered it from the very first birth pangs in the 1990s and all through the various regulatory big bangs that EU membership brought about as well as two of the worst financial crises in recorded history. To be clear not everyone agreed with some of his and his colleagues’ deliberations but the same can be said for most regulators and holders of public office. You cannot please everyone all of the time.

That man of course is Professor Joseph V. Bannister and anyone who has been involved in the financial services industry in the past three decades will surely agree that our industry and indeed the Maltese domicile as a whole has benefited in no small way by the discretion that the MFSA under Prof. Bannister has and continues to exercise over our professions. At times this was rather forceful, when needed, and at others it can be described as a gentle touch—recently some have even felt that it was too gentle a touch but that is debatable—but it was always discreet. As little fuss as possible was made and there was a recognition that the regulation of the financial industry is not something that can pander to the whims of the public or those of specific vested interests and lobbies.

Prof. Bannister was in charge of the Malta Financial Services Centre (the precursor to the MFSA) when I joined Mid-Med Bank’s Bancassurance Unit—at a time when the height of financial sophistication in Malta was basically an endowment with profits policy—and was still in charge when I left Malta to work in Wealth Management in the UAE. He remained in charge whilst I observed from a distance the growth and diversification of the financial services industry in Malta and was in charge when I subsequently partnered and collaborated with firms that the MFSA regulates to offer services in the Middle East. He was also very much in charge as the island geared itself up for the massive innovation and disruption brought about by new payments technology as well as blockchain and crypto.

As we welcome a new head and a new structure for the MFSA we should only hope that, far from heading into uncharted waters, we shall be following the chart that was set for us over the course of the last quarter century.