this is Malta News live with Cyrielle Delmas delmas. Good evening, welcome to the fourth episode of
Malta news. The stories tonight : after SATA Bank has been shut down by the
authorities, self-employed foreigners living and working in Malta are facing
hard times to open current accounts with all the local banks.
The MFSA is watching the situation.
And I'm welcoming Arnold Cassola co-founder and former leader of
alternativa democrática, and former Secretary General of the European Green Party
We're going to talk on the lack of equality in banking in Malta
But first an interview with SATA Bank client Alex whose family is currently being troubled
as all their private and business funds are frozen
Friday afternoon we're in front of Sata Bank headquarters in Paceville
We've been asking for client interviews in the Facebook group victims of Sata Bank and some of them confirmed to talk to us
when trying to record these interviews
we are being watched by two local policemen and a team of the armed Rapid Intervention unit
although there's nothing wrong with being watched some
clients are scared off from giving interviews due to this unusual police presence
only Alex from Ukraine who's been living and doing business in Malta
since many years wants to tell us more about his situation
A desperate situation for his business his family and especially for his wife who has cancer
Terrible why I haven't money even I kept my account just inside a bank all
credit all cards in sata bank you know I couldn't pay for something especially
for treatment to my wife of course for the business it's terrible as well
because I keep in shipping business ship operator, for 14 years I was a client of
fim bank we had and still have good relations with Fim bank but one moment
in March or April 2016, SATA Bank (He mistakes for FIM BANK) our friends I can say nothing against them
told us that we can work just with super client I don't know and maybe due to
nationality because I am not Maltese I don't know without an explanation please
could you close the account with our bank we are fully satisfied to working
with you but it's our policy and after this I start to run to
different banks and just SATA bank opened me account that I am a client I
am or I was a client of SATA Bank since I think April maybe May 2016
I kept all my money and company money and private money everything in SATA bank I
have no problems with salary for my crew members for banker and for this basement
everything in fact its collapse for my business and it's collapsed for my
private life everything change during Sunday morning when my wife couldn't
make payments from the credit card in Germany in Regensburg you know she even
couldn't pay for the hotel where she stayed that moment because she get
treatment in Sandra's hospital in Germany and our friends in Germany help
to pay for hotel for this to borrow money and Wednesday late evening she
came back to Malta.
And did you receive an apology from SATA Bank ?
No just, what I can see, its announcement. You know..wait, be quite, and nothing nothing else
I sent numerals mails to SATA Bank I sent emails to MFSA and reply please
apply to SATA Bank I understand they couldn't reply for
everything you know even to pass through emails but at least I don't know what to
do really I couldn't give suggest how to do what
to do I just told telling the story of my life
of my business problems of my personal problems for my family for my wife it's terrible
And we wish all the best to Alex and his family
unfortunately the police refused to give a statement on the presence of the special unit due to
administrative reasons. Although authorities are more cooperative the MFSA
told our newsroom what they were doing to enforce the expats legal right
to open local accounts easily
the Malta Financial Services Authority has recently carried out a mystery shopping exercise on opening bank accounts in Malta
A number of unsatisfying findings have been published in September the
MFSA report confirms investigations of this newsroom, some employees didn't
give out full or correct information on banking products, or verbal or handwritten information only
the authority points out that any legal
resident in Malta or in any other EU member state has the right to open a
basic account with Maltese credit institutions. Such a basic account
normally includes the ability to send and receive transfers the access to
online and mobile banking as well as a debit card for ATM withdrawals and
online payments the MFSA further points out that Maltese banks are to
provide such accounts irrespective of the consumers nationality or place of
residence, gender, financial circumstances employment status, level of income, credit
history, or even personal bankruptcy the document required for opening a basic
account is one of the following. A Maltese identity card or a Maltese
resident documentation card, another EU member-states identity card, or another
EU member-states passport. Or even a temporary identification document
Maltese banks are not to introduce or implement policies or procedures which
may directly or indirectly impose any unnecessary difficult or burdensome
restrictions. The MFSA also states that credit institutions are still bound with
national and European anti money laundering legislation and can refuse to
open a payment account where to do so would be in breach of said legislation
but the MFSA does not specifically comment on these newsrooms further findings
employees of some Maltese banks keep asking foreign residents for much more
documentation than actually required by local and EU anti-money laundering laws
a well-known practice of certain banks to avoid dealing with self-employed
foreigners. The authorities mystery shopping only found that the list of
required documents appeared to be inconsistent across branches of the same
credit institutions. And I'm now welcoming Arnold Cassola co-founder and
former leader of alternativa democrática and former secretary-general of the
European Green Party. Good evening and thank you for the invitation thank you
for joining us. Mr Cassola, what is your opinion on the current SATA
bank scandal ? Well obviously it's a bad thing for Malta at the moment but
especially I think for the honest people who have banked with SATA Bank it is
unfortunate because it is now the third Bank
which has which has gone into trouble I mean this is the third case in the
recent couple of years. We have had NEMEA bank we've had pilatus Bank and
now we have SATA bank which for some reason or another have been connected to
dirty money investments. How do you explain all of this ? Well I think the
major problem shows us that the due diligence that was supposed to
be done was not done properly and in this I would say that the MFSA has had
its own thoughts. I will not say the MFSA today which has a new chairman and you
know a new new directors but the MFSA until last a beginning of this year we
had as a as a Chairman professor Bannister who had been there for 22 years
unfortunately had a lot of thoughts which were being pointed out but at the
force both locally and internationally the thoughts were multiple for example
and when I spoke to foreign politicians they would be and when they discovered
these things they would be really shocked that the chairman of the MFSA who
is supposed to ensure that things are done properly by the book, actually was a
director of company in the Cayman Islands in if you know in these tax
havens he was also and he had shares in mining
companies in Russia which again were not declared and so on and this was a
already ringing bells but the worst thing was that he was while being the
chairperson of the MFSA, which is there to ensure that things are done as they
should be, he was also vice president of finance
malta which is the company that attracts foreign businesses to Malta and
foreign finance to Malta so on the one hand you have you are trying to attract
foreign finance explaining the laws the Maltese laws, and the tax you can avoid
in Malta through the various schemes and on the other hand you are the same
person trying to ensure that there is no hanky-panky going on in financial
services. So this was extremely irresponsible, of course this is where
politics come comes in to motivate there was political protection ex
minister who was first with the Nationalist Party and then turned over
to the prime minister today, so, some 20 years managed to get again along quite a
lot and unfortunately the result is that we have these banks and which were not
scrutinized as they should have been, and now we have of course probably people
who are not clean. Who got into this into these new banks but there are also
many good you know good good honest people, normal people
Maltese, EU citizens, maybe non EU citizens who have invested also their
money in these banks because maybe also operations are much much easier to go by
and there is less bureaucracy and I suppose the whole issue is therefore
that the Maltese banks, that the established Maltese banks have a good
reputation should stick to the rules yes, but maybe these flexible or certain
issues and certainly not have a double treatment
EU citizens at least because EU citizens and Maltese citizens have
the same rights, and the same duties. There is the EU law on opening
payment accounts, which says clearly that any EU citizen in any EU country
has the right to open an account, and it cannot be refused. So how do you explain it has not been the case ? Well it can only be refused if there is suspicion of
money laundering and of financing terrorism
so obviously the Maltese banks are being very rigid of this and not all of them
of course and not all branches because that's another issue. You can have a
thing things very different situation in a different city or town in Malta. These
18 by 28 kilometers and therefore when people find themselves you know
the thing for example you need obviously if you want to open a bank account to
prove your identity that's fair enough. Well in Malta, and any card any identity card
is sufficient and is legal and that is valid both for Maltese and for EU
citizens. Yet most branches or some branches do not accept an ID card and a
European identity card but want a passport. Now that could be very good for
British people because the British do not traditionally have an identity card
but it is not normal for French, Spanish, Lituanian or whatsoever. So why ? This you
know, discrimination and Maltese can open a bank account with an identity card and
and a foreigner can not. And going back to the clients of Sata bank do you think
that their are left out by the government ? Well rather than being left out
this is just you and obviously they don't know what's happening because
probably we don't know exactly why the bank has been stopped in its operations
I mean other people have been through it before with Nemea bank, which also was
stopped in the beginning and then blocked and now people are risking
losing them all the money, not all of it to be fair, because in that Bank
you had the European deposit scheme were up to hundred thousand you got back so
that people had up to hundred thousand that they were safe. But people if you
had over 100,000 that's blocked at the bank. Now it seems that with Sata bank
there isn't even this guarantee which I find very strange in an EU country after
the after the crisis we had in 2008 this was introduced Europe wide. European
Union wide were all major banks serious banks would refund you there is this
national scheme which would refund you the hundred thousand the first hundred
thousand you have in the bank. So people don't know what's happening I have read
issues of people having three four thousand in the bank but it's their life
savings, pensioners you know and that means a lot. Everything they earned in life
we have seen the situation of business people who have to pay their employees
and cannot use their money, they are blocked.
So it is it unfortunately my experience is my experience in seeing these things
happen is they are not solved very quickly and it takes a long time and in
the meantime a business can get destroyed and an old pensioner I can end
up penniless because one cannot touch his money. Is there no hope for these clients ?
no I don't think there is no hope indeed the MFSA has said that it is
going bit by bit to restore and to allow honest people to take their money back
but it will be a long process I don't think people are going to release ten
thousand euro banks you know banks or a hundred thousand in in five minutes so
this is the unfortunate thing which goes back to as I said the due diligence not
having been done properly on these banks and then it's regard to the normal you
know man of the street woman in the street who opened an account together 3%
or whatever in the banks the fact that the Maltese banks tend to be very rigid
especially with EU citizens who have
exactly the same rights and telling them as I said you have to get your passport
and not your ID CARD. I I know of... What would you advise ?
Their is nothing to advise, the advice is the law is clear. To those clients who are being
refused to open a bank account ? Yes they should they should immediately you know
and tell this to the authorities, because this is discrimination. The MFSA ? The MFSA yes.
whoever because they should even start a class action if anything you know
because there is no distinction the distinction is but whether you're a
crook or whether or whether you're not whether you're a money launderer or
whether you're not whether you're a financing terrorism or whether you're
not. If you're an honest person who is just working normally the due diligence
have to be done of course they have to check on us. Even though on me I am
considered to be a PEP you know politically exposed person by banks so
just to pretend five thousand or ten thousand they have to fill in
questioners which really bother me but on the other hand when we've seen crooks
and politicians going to Panama and avoiding tax and evading tax and not
only Panama and Switzerland, Cayman it's full, on that, okay I accept it it's good
at there is transparency. But it is also good that business people should have a
a safe banking atmosphere and therefore if they are say if they are clean and if
they are biding by the roads they should not be subjected to extra to extra
hassle ! So what is your position on equality in banking ? yes as I said that
is the basic basic thing and I cannot say that it is equality also for non
EU citizens because it would put them in a different category because not because
they are bad people not at all it's just that EU laws does not cover them. So if
there were a global law which covered them too I would say let's apply the
global law but what we do have here is clear EU laws which apply only to EU
citizens. So of course we have to have equality and I saw you in Gozo for
example there's a case this is not the bank this is the identity card office
where the the officials are asking people if citizens who have been living
in go to for 10 years for 12 years who and who went to renew their identity
card now. And you know what they're asking them for ? They want a bank
statement from a fourth of the bank account in Malta they have money in
Malta and in a bank account and some of these people don't have it because when he tried to
open it ten years ago they found it was so difficult so they said forget it
I have my Visa card I have my MasterCard and my bank abroad I will start
withdrawing that and it's done that another have a difficulty that they
cannot get the new identity card ironically if you are an EU citizen
living in Malta you are entitled to vote in Malta for example next 25th May next
year. At vote for local councils if you want to register to vote for European
elections in Malta you can do that and you can actually be a candidate and you
can actually be elected, but to do that, you need an identity card
and now your new identity card, in Gozo, will not be renewed if you don't
produce your bank statement from Malta. In Malta, well, we can't have these
anomalies we are not living here you know in a continent miles away nobody
knows what's doing it's a small place and so possibly I think I should be even
seminars for the bank branches bank employees so ensure that they first of
all they have a uniform uniform situation for everybody all bank
branches should know exactly what should be done and what should not be done okay
so that people are given the same treatment and other little things for
example and employees normally can pay by cheque sometimes if you can find it
but banks would normally not accept cheques for a for for an EU citizen
we're not accept a check deposit but they would want a direct bank transfer
into into the local accounts. Do you consider this as a discrimination ? If
it's not done for Maltese, yes, definitely. I always say we EU citizens in this
on this issue, there is no question of Maltese, or European or European Union
citizens we're the same and we have to be subjected to the same the same thing
another thing for example there was experience of of EU citizens coming to
Malta with a bank reference of the bank in their country in Spain in Portugal
wherever and presented to the banker and the bank in Malta will not accept the
reference. Now I can even understand maybe them being worried about possible
falsified documents which can happen with the crooks so they they would only
have the Bank State Bank reference coming directly from the bank to whom
they had written from Malta of course these create difficulties if you want to
start up a a business here or if you want to work
here you have to pay your landlord you don't have a bank account to operate
with you cannot pay your landlord so it's a vicious circle which can hit your
rent your salary your employment and your bank and your residence it's a big
thing you know which I'm which is not not easy to do to to solve
so one last issue maybe that we could mention it's the question of pensioners
a number of EU citizens who are pensioners have been refused and a bank
account just because they are pensioners. So here we have a double discrimination you
are discriminated because you are vis a vis the Maltese when you should not
be because you are an EU citizen and then you are discriminated against
because over 60 or 65 rather than facilitating your staff and you just
receiving your pension which you are going to spend in more ext... so the
main thing in my opinion is ensuring that we distinguish between the honest
people and the dishonest people but not based on nationality. Do you think that
there should be better enforcement ? Yes definitely but rather than the
enforcement it's a better knowledge also of the laws of European law in the
banking sector in the people who are going to deal with it with clients and
of course and then when there's equal treatment, you have to fill in a
form ten page form because the law says that amen. I don't like doing it but
you have to do it but everybody has to do it and not just you and not to be
singled out because you are non Maltese. Okay thank you very much mr Cassola.
Thanks to you. And malta news will follow up on this issue. If you are a foreign
resident in Malta and you are also experiencing some difficulties opening a
bank account send us an email to domesticbanks@maltanews.tv so
that's all for tonight thanks for watching us and we'll be back tomorrow
at 7:00 in the morning with the daily updates have a
goodnight
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