A lost opportunity

MICROCREDIT AS A TOOL OF ETHICAL FINANCING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Author: Ed. E. P. Delia Publisher: APS Bank Year: 2011 Pages: 182

Noel Grima

It is indeed a pity that APS Bank seems to have stopped this series of publications that went by the title of Occasional Papers.

They used to be issued when E.P. Delia was chairman of the bank and most of them were written by him.

This present volume contains the papers read at a seminar organised by the European Federation of Ethical and Alternative Banks which was held in Malta in April 2010.

At that time, at least, APS Bank formed part of EFEAB (or FEBEA). I am not so sure it still is.

A hundred years before this seminar a group of Maltese led by a Jesuit priest set up a savings institution to encourage Maltese workers’ families to save. It also provided small loans. Thus began IlBank tal-Appostolat tat-Talb, the forefather of the present-day APS Bank.

What makes the whole thing rather a mystery is the perception that the bank nowadays considers itself more of a commercial bank than an ethical bank according to its historic origins.

And the fact that the Curia has lately announced the setting up of the Voluntary Solidarity Fund with former minister Josef Bonnici at its head. One must note in passing that Professor Bonnici is also the head of the Development Bank set up by government to help SMEs who otherwise would not qualify for bank loans. Does this church appointment imply that Prof. Bonnici is not altogether happy with the way the Development Bank is developing?

Anyway, this slim book, as said, is the collection of papers delivered at the FEBEA seminar held in Malta.

After a general introduction by Prof. Delia, Karol Sachs, FEBEA chairman, discusses the history of FEBEA and its current initiatives and projects. Andre Laude, chief Investment officer at the World Bank, asks if Microfinance is an emerging asset class while Per-Erik Erikksson, Helmut KremerEis and Alessio Conforti deliver a masterclass about microfinance in Europe.

The Malta angle is handled by former Governor of the Central Bank, Michael C. Bonello and Karol Gabaretta, lately of MFSA.

Gaetano Giunta and Domenico Marina discuss, from a rather Leftist angle, the distribution of wealth in a city like Messina, with all its internal contradictions. Fabio Salviato speaks of the difficulties facing the creation of an ethical bank for Palestine while Lars Hektoen discusses the development of micro-finance in Norway and how Cultura Bank handled access to the European Investment Fund’s loan guarantee arrangement for microcredits.