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Daniel Camilleri - 29 June 2009
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MSI’s Malta law firm Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates recently participated in FinanceMalta’s second annual conference entitled “The Financial Services Industry in Malta – Building on Our Success”. FinanceMalta is a non-profit public-private partnership promoting Malta as a financial services centre of repute.
The full-day conference held on 29 May included a remarkable line-up of keynote speakers making presentations on Malta’s positive repositioning as a Euro-Mediterranean financial services centre.
Mr. Michael Bonello, Governor of the Central Bank of Malta addressed the challenges facing Malta’s banking system, highlighting the Maltese banks exemplary emergence as the world’s 10th soundest banking system.
Ms. Marianne Wolfbrandt, DG Internal Market and Services at the European Commission spoke about the role of EU financial services policy in terms of promoting financial sector competitiveness.
Mr. Hamish McRae, author of ‘The World in 2020’, discussed the current state of the global economy and the relevance of this for the finance industry.
Dr. Jean Philippe Chetcuti, partner at Chetcuti Cauchi, and Kevin Valenzia of PwC addressed the national challenges and international opportunities presented by the current economic environment.
In the past decade, Malta’s financial sector has sustained steady growth. The world financial crisis and the G20’s reactive clampdown on tax havens have positioned Malta as an attractive jurisdiction for a redomiciliation of hedge fund and other financial services business.
A full EU member since 2004, Malta enjoys European onshore status and features prominently on the OECD white-list as a
reputable financial services centre. Malta’s corporate tax system is fully EU and OECD compliant and, thanks to Malta’s tax imputation system, shareholders of Malta companies enjoy an effective tax rate of 5%. The island enjoys a wide network of over 50 double tax treaties.
Malta’s company tax system positions the country as an attractive holding company jurisdiction as well as generally a
tax-efficient location for group treasury, royalty routing and international business activities based in Malta. The island owes its favourable FDI profile to its responsive regulatory authorities, a sound legal and regulatory regime, stable and transparent government and healthy international relations.
In his closing speech, Dr Chetcuti emphasised the importance of not going overboard with overregulation at the risk of stifling international financial innovation and encouraged the local authorities to strive to retain their agility and responsiveness in the ever evolving financial services industry to protect Malta’s competitive advantage.
For information, please contact Daniel Camilleri at Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
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