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Malta sees further growth in hedge funds

Posted: 07 August 2008

The Maltese financial services sector continued to expand at a steady rate during the first seven months of this year. Licences issued by the MFSA during the period, particularly in the investment services, insurance and trust sectors, continued to show a sustained level of growth in the financial sector. Malta's fund servicing capacities continued to build up with five Category 2 licences issued during the first six months of this year to Blue Planet Investment Management, FMG (Malta), AS Financial Services, GDP Asset Management (Malta) and Oceanwood Capital Management (Malta) respectively.

A fund administration recognition certificate was also issued to Praxis Fund Services (Malta) Limited. Praxis is a privately-owned group of companies providing a wide range of professional services including accounting, auditing, trust and company administration, fund administration and taxation, to private individuals and international corporate clients. Praxis is also represented in Guernsey.

On the fund side, during the period under review, the MFSA issued 62 collective investment scheme (CIS) licences to professional investor funds targeting qualifying investors, seven CIS licences to PIFs targeting qualifying and experienced investors, two CIS licences to PIFs targeting experienced investors and five CIS licences to PIFs targeting extraordinary investors.

Three CIS licences were also issued to Maltese UCITS and three licences were issued to retail collective investment schemes. The number of CIS licences as at the end of June totalled 363. Five trustee services companies were registered during the period, with two of these companies offering fiduciary services. Financial institution licences were issued to Island Financial Services Limited and Crystal Loan Brokers Limited to carry out the activities of money broking.

Three new insurance companies, Taurus Company Limited, Bray Insurance Company Limited and PSA Insurance Limited, were authorised under the Insurance Business Act to carry out general business in a number of areas. PSA Life Insurance Limited was also authorised to carry on long term insurance business. An affiliated insurance licence was issued to Palatina Insurance Limited to carry on general insurance business in five classes. The new insurance companies will be operating on a cross-border basis.

During this period, Willis Holdings opened a captive insurance management office in Malta. The insurance manager will operate as Willis Management (Malta) Limited. The London-based insurance broker said its expansion into Malta is due to growing captive insurance and third-party underwriter opportunities, as Malta's financial industry grows. Atlas Insurance PCC Ltd has had two cells approved to write general insurance business in a number of areas.

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