When former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that Boston currency-printer Crane would be setting up shop in Malta, he had thanked, amongst a variety of people, the BOV chairman at the time, John Cassar White.
Why? The reason for this, in my opinion, was quite clear: the Bank of Valletta had once again acted more like a government trough or tool than a bank, and it had forced Crane Currency to accept enormously advantageous facilities that will enable it to make its $100 million capital investment. These facilities included the purchase of Komori machines, from which the Prime Minister’s chief of staff’s company would receive the customary official distributor’s cut.
Fast forward to the VGH scandal deal. BOV was reduced to the one and only US correspondent bank, with the same bank issuing the loan to Steward Health Care, which was bailed out by Muscat’s government while the Maltese honest tax-paying citizen was sold out.
Fast forward to 2024, and BOV registered a pre-tax profit of €251.6 million, a new record, thanks to “green loans” and “tailwinds of interest rates.”
May we remind ourselves that BOV was flush with cash from the enormous amounts of “funny” money that have been flowing into it like the landmark lawsuit involving the millions of Gaddafi funds which is only the tip of the iceberg.
May we remind ourselves that Electrogas Malta, up till 2015, had borrowed a total of €101 million from BOV and another new loan of €450 million from it, among other banks [HSBC Bank plc, Société Générale and KFW IPEX-Bank GmbH.]
May we remind ourselves that either BOV gave Keith Schembri’s business an overdraft and loan facilities of €4 million.
Shouldn’t this bank be under external scrutiny?
And a few weeks ago we learn that, by pure “coincidence,” BOV discussed the integration of AI technology in the banking sector. AI is the end of humanity. Digital banking and its technology will totally control you, under the new totalitarian regime. Wait and see.
