OUT WITH THIS ISSUE Anger mounts as Satabank crisis persists

Each day that passes, the Satabank crisis persists. People are suffering and accounts are blocked.

Protests are being aired on many websites and the harm this is doing to Malta’s good name is beyond calculation.

As a taster of this anger, here is a post by a Maltese account holder:

The Satabank debacle means that many customers of this bank are facing financial ruin or worse. Gaming companies cannot access their funds. Employees can’t access their wages. And what does the MFSA do? it plays Nero whilst Rome burns, and sends the staff to some team building exercise. Its instructions to Sata clients are to go open accounts in other banks, banks that are refusing to open accounts for these people who went to Sata in the first place. What a shameful and revolting turn of things from a regulator that has failed Malta time and time again to regulate what it should have regulated. All they know how to do is to slap automatic fines on people, whilst basking in spending money on team building.

It is simply not true that it’s an international bank. It had many Maltese clients and Maltese companies as clients.

I don’t believe in conspiracies, but it looks like the Big Fish killing the small fish for me.....with the connivance of a very compliant regulator. Never mind that the Big Fish are full of money deposited by dubious individuals........

If the MFSA is really interested in the customers, then it should let them access their accounts and sanction only those that are suspicious. Otherwise any action it is taking is not credible, and smacks of high handedness. The losers are the customers, the winners are the lawyers and the accounting firms.

The damage MFSA’s intransi- gence is causing is just huge. Don’t you people see beyond your expense account dinners and perks?

Shame on you for destroying so many lives.

On Tuesday, Jeremy Micallef reported that the Malta Gaming Authority said that they are in contact with licensees that hold bank accounts with Satabank to ensure that they are taking the necessary steps to set up alternatives for continued operation in accordance with the law.

Sources close to the MFSA recently told this newsroom that the companies are insisting with the MFSA that since other local banks do not accept iGaming companies as clients, a replacement for Satabank’s services was essential in order for them to continue operating.

But the MFSA had told Satabank customers that, “if they not have an alternative account (with a credit or payment institution) in an EU/EEA jurisdiction, they are encouraged to set one up as soon as possible”.

In light of the situation The Malta Independent asked the MGA what will happen if the companies do not have a bank to bank with; what the MGA is doing with regards to companies which held accounts with Satabank, and are now facing problems; and to provide their input on the situation.

The MGA, in response, said that they are “in contact with licensees having accounts at Satabank”.

They also stated that they are “in close contact with the MFSA and the Authority is monitoring the situation and ensuring that player funds held therein are safeguarded. We are also in contact with licensees having bank accounts at Satabank to ensure that they are taking the necessary steps to set up alternatives for continued operation in accordance with the law.”

iGaming companies losing clients is of concern considering the importance of the sector to the Maltese economy. According to recent figures, the iGaming sector contributes €1.2 billion to the Maltese economy, equivalent to 12 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.