Reputation is everything - Marcel Cassar

On the cold morning of February 1, 1994, an audience of over 100 guests filled the conference room of the then Mġarr Hotel, Gozo. It was the start of a two-day residential seminar packed with discussions and presentations about how Malta was to evolve from an offshore to an international financial centre. The high-profile event, addressed by experts drafting the new financial services legislation that was to make its way to parliament later in the year, also signalled the transition of the Malta International Business Authority (MIBA) to the MFSC, which became today’s MFSA.

I still remember a particular slide from the opening presentation: “Malta is a latecomer to this business, and competing with the likes of Luxembourg, Dublin and the Channel Isles will be tough; but we can do it, as long as we have one word stamped on our visiting cards: reputation.”

I look back at that time as the birth of our financial services industry. Many of those present at the seminar, from politicians to regulators to practitioners, are still around and remember what we had resolved: that Malta could only realise its extensive and sophisticated ambitions through a modernisation of the legislative...