GRTU expresses great worry on Malta’s financial services situation

Innocent people are suffering and business is being driven away

Weeks after the accounts at Satabank have been frozen no real timeline has been released. Simple steps to take care of the worries of the investors we have worked so hard to attract such as a customer care system is still completely lacking, GRTU said in a statement.

Businesses are being given close to no information outside the bank’s doorstep and business closures are knocking on our doors. Responsibility must be taken for the additional damage that is being created.

The fact that the bank had to be closed and immediate action had to be taken is not being put into question. The regulators are the only ones aware of what the extent of the problems are and how best to deal with them, within the powers conferred to them.

The situation is however very grave. Apart from the fact that this is hitting Malta’s reputation very hard and many businesses that have come to invest in Malta have told GRTU that they will not look at Malta ever again - there is a level of unfairness where the good has been punished with the bad.

Meanwhile if one drove past the Msida Skate Park yesterday, one might have noticed a small group of people casually eating pizza outside the offices of EY.

These were clients of Satabank, protesting for their deposits to be returned to them over a month after they were frozen by the Mal- tese financial services authority.

The lunch symbolises how some of the bank’s clients have been reduced to eating the most basic of food as a result of most their funds being locked inside their Satabank accounts.

“It’s a nightmare. People cannot even begin to understand what we’re going through,” one client said recently. “My lifestyle had to change overnight. I started eating the things I had in the fridge and freezer but now that’s empty and I’m living on just bread and cheese.”

This was the third protest organised by Satabank clients, and the most successful by far, with EY chosen as a protest site as the financial services firm is the competent person administering the bank’ assets.

Further protests are scheduled outside the offices of the MFSA, the Economy Ministry and Castille in the coming days. The protest in front of MFSA is scheduled for tomorrow Friday at 1.30pm.

Around 12,000 people hold accounts at Satabank, mostly foreign residents who were unable to open accounts elsewhere due to the particularly stringent requirements set by other Maltese banks for foreign account holders.

The MFSA has assured Satabank clients that their money is safe in the hands of EY and has informed local banks that EU law entitles all Maltese residents to a basic bank account.

Manwel Delia said he spoke to a number of the employees who said their October salaries were unpaid and it’s looking likely that their November salaries would not be paid either. Their temporary arrangements with landlords to delay rent payments are likely to expire soon forcing them to leave the country altogether.

They also complained that their employers are unable to pay operational costs such as software licences and internet subscription bills which will force them to shut down their operations altogether and lose their contracts with their clients.

An employee he spoke to told him her boss helped his staff as much as he could by paying everyone a portion of their salary out of personal funds. However unless their funds at Satabank are unblocked in the immediate future, their business will close and they will lose their jobs.

One company some of the employees present today worked for has been in Malta for three years and is co-owned by German and Maltese owners that are both residents in Malta. “Our bosses do not take their profits out of the country and they do not get their tax reimbursed. They always paid all their taxes and all their income has been against invoices for the creative work that we do. Why are we being punished?”

Those protesting complained that neither Ernst & Young, nor the MFSA nor Satabank has in the past months handled any of their calls enquiring on any progress. All three refer them to short statements that promise the accounts will eventually be freed up but making no promises on timelines.

“For us it looks like this will be too late. We have been in Malta for years and we liked it here. But it looks like we will have to leave”.

“Malta makes so much effort attracting digital businesses, but then we find out we cannot get banking services here. We can’t run a business without a bank”.