On Friday 4th January 2013 the Malta Financial Services Authority (the ‘MFSA’) sent to Bank of Valletta (the ‘Bank’) the list of those investors who, according to the Independent Expert Report compiled by Mazars and confirmed by the MFSA, are eligible for additional compensation from the Bank. This list includes those investors whose complaint with the MFSA was upheld by the Bank as eligible for additional compensation.
The Bank has been instructed to process and to effect the payment of the additional compensation as soon as possible. This additional payment should be received by all eligible investors free of any charges or deductions. Mazars commenced the independent file review in early September 2012, and submitted its Independent Expert’s Report to the MFSA on the 21st December 2012. In its Report, Mazars obtained and considered relevant information provided by the Bank on the sale of units in the Fund by the Bank to investors. Mazars reviewed all advisory client transactions and those execution only transactions where the documentation was not correctly completed. Mazars reviewed the circumstances of these transactions in order to substantiate which investors fell under the criteria of an “experienced investor”, as defined in the terms of the Fund’s supplementary prospectus, and drew-up a list of investors who did not qualify as experienced investors.
A few investors have contacted the MFSA to enquire whether they are due additional compensation. As set out in the MFSA statement of 4th June 2012, the list of investors due compensation has been passed to the Bank. The Bank will now calculate the final payment due and make arrangements for those payments to be made without delay. There will be a short reconciliation exercise to ensure that all relevant investors have been considered and assessed correctly, but payments due will be made during that exercise. The MFSA continues to monitor the finalisation of this investigation process.
The MFSA is updating the Question and Answer Guide regarding the investigation into the selling of the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund, which can be viewed at
http://www.mfsa.mt/pages/announcements.aspx?id=1.
