Amidst Challenging Geopolitics, Malta Presses Case As Robust Jurisdiction - EUROPE SAYS
This news service recently met with the head of Malta”s principal financial regulator to talk about developing the country’s banking, investment and family office ecosystem. When internationally-mobile high. . .
This news service recently met with the head of Malta”s principal financial regulator to talk about developing the country’s banking, investment and family office ecosystem. When internationally-mobile high net worth and ultra-HNWindividuals and families reconsider options in geopoliticallytense times, several options arise. Malta, the Mediterraneanisland and European Union member state, is keen to press itscase. “We’ve invested in our systems and controls and there is a safeenvironment, and this is both in regulatory terms and as ajurisdiction,” Kenneth Farrugia, CEO of theMaltaFinancial Services Authority, the island’s principalfinancial services regulator, told WealthBriefing duringa trip to London. “Some people are re-evaluating their choices [of jurisdiction]and there’s movement,” Farrugia said. Malta is home to 20 banks and developing a financial ecosystemthat, for example, includes an established family offices sector. The country updated its family offices framework in late2024. Policymakers have been busy developing rules to keep the islandon the front foot. The MFSA has published revised rules relatingto Notified Professional Investor Funds and trustees of familytrusts, to give one example. These developments have resulted in faster structuring, greatercertainty, reduced administrative burden, more proportionateregulation, while ensuring preservation of anti-money launderingsafeguards, MFSA says. Notably, the regulator says it hasprovided clear definitions of what constitutes a “family officevehicle” and the types of investors that are available. In Malta’s case, it wants to be the place where UHNW families canexplore options. This position fits with the“family offices in motion”analysis which this news servicepublished earlier in the year, when stories about UK-basedfamily offices leaving the country in their droves were shown tobe simplistic. Instead of organisations leaving one countryand going to another, many are creating branches, sometimes forfamily members who have founded a separate business abroad orchosen to go their own way. Tax is often not even the mostimportant consideration. Against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty and shiftingregulatory landscape, Farrugia said “many wealthy families arelooking to diversify where they structure and manage theirwealth, rather than relying on a single jurisdiction…It isalways good to have a second option” he said. “If circumstanceschange, you have an alternative. ”Digital edgeAway from family offices, Farrugia talked about the island’sdigital assets ecosystem as another pillar of the jurisdiction’sfinancial services offering. As wealthy families increasinglyexplore investments in digital and tokenized assets, he arguedthat Malta’s early regulatory framework provides an additionaladvantage for those seeking a well-regulated European base. “Malta was the first jurisdiction to establish a virtualfinancial assets framework in 2018,” he said. Referring to theEuropean Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation,which entered into force in 2023, Farrugia said Malta hadanticipated the EU’s move years earlier. The island is home to 14licensed entities under MiCA, although, he added, “it’s not thenumber of licence holders that matters, but their quality. ”Talent developmentTo illustrate how the regulator also supports talent managementin the field of compliance, on 2 July the MFSA said thatthrough its Financial Supervisors Academy, in collaboration withthe University of Malta, it launched a new Master of Science(MSc) in Financial Regulation and Compliance. The programme builds on the Postgraduate Diploma in FinancialRegulation and Compliance introduced in 2024. The MSc programme,which starts in October 2026, is designed to equipprofessionals with advanced knowledge and practical skills infinancial regulation, compliance, governance, risk management,financial crime prevention, sustainable finance and emergingregulatory developments.