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Evarist Bartolo says MFSA gave direct orders to chairman’s business associates
MFSA chairman is director of Cayman Islands company which Labour MP says has gone undeclared.
Evarist Bartolo.
Labour MP Evarist Bartolo has called on the chairman of the financial regulator to categorically deny he is a director of a Cayman Islands company, which he claims has gone undeclared in the Malta Financial Services Authority's annual report.
MFSA chairman Prof. Joseph bannister has denied any conflict of interest, referring to the fact that he did not declare this business interest in the MFSA's annual report.
Bartolo said Bannister has been a director of Kairos Fund Limited, an umbrella collective investment fund with a big number of funds, since 2005, as announced by an Irish Stock Exchange announcement of 15 June 2005.
Bannister was appointed jointly with Peter Astleford, a partner and co-head of the financial services group of Dechert LLP, who had been entrusted with the setting up the American firm's European financial services and funds practice in 1997.
Bartolo said another Maltese director, Raymond Bugeja, resident and with business interests at Portomaso in St Julian's - where Bannister's registered address is - was shortly appointed; and that the MFSA awarded €463,000 in direct order consultancies to Astleford's Dechert LLP.
"I call on Prof. Bannister to categorically deny that the Annual Report of the MFSA has no reference to him holding any appointments on other Boards of Directors; indeed, a glaring anomaly of the report is that it does not have a disclosure section, in which the directors, both executive and non-executive, disclose any financial or other interests they may have which may have a bearing on the performance of their duties," Bartolo said.
The Labour MP has also accused Bannister of being in breach of good governance principles, being involved in the administration of funds in a jurisdiction that is competing with Malta in this sector, and in a jurisdiction "with dubious reputation".
Bartolo has also called on Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to declare whether Bannister informed his office of the directorships he holds and whether he allowed the chairman of the MFSA to hold such directorships.
"It follows that if Professor Bannister - after pompously denying claims I made in Parliament on 13 November 2012 saying that there was no truth in what I said - does not deny these statements with credible documentation, we shall produce the documentation ourselves and Professor Bannister should realise he has only one option left for him to do."
The chairman of the Malta Financial Services Authority, Joseph Bannister, has denied claims of conflict of interest and will be writing to the Prime Minister about his position, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said.
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@lela......vera fuoriclasse ghax meta kien ministru raqad qam u nehha l-istipendji ta l-istudenti. barra minhekk ma nafx kemm il darba qajjem dubji u investiga fuq nies (ghax ghandikun hekk biss jaf jghamel)u ma wasal imkien ghax qatt ma nstabu provi biex jinstabu hatja u aktar min hekk l-anqas hu stess ma kien jitla jixhed. TFIGH TA TAJN BISS.
Joseph MELI •
What a snakepit the MFSA -and what an unaccountable cabal -it really is occupied by arrogant, imperious and imperial high-end (and I use that term loosely)managers.One law for the great unwashed no law for the privileged few!
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Evarist Bartolo is a politician in a class of his own
as they say in Italy, you are fuoriclasse,Prosit Mr Bartolo,may all parliamentarians be like you.
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Is there no justice for thses kind of people who take advantage at the least opportunity to make a buck at the expense of the man in the street? Let's hope a PL government look into the operations of all individuals in high places who had the poer to confer financial gains to themselves, their families, thier friends and friends of friends. Justice must be done.
