Definitely not board material, still less MEPA board material
Matthew Pace, holding the Labour flag, celebrating the Labour victory at JPO’s house on 10 March
This is Matthew Pace’s company (he’s the P in MFSP). Fined and banned from selling complex financial products, and yet the prime minister appointed him to the MEPA board which takes complex and far-reaching decisions on planning.
The Times 6 October 2012
INVESTMENT COMPANY FINED FOR WRONG SELLING
By Mark Micallef
The investment firm MFSP Financial Management has been fined €12,000 and banned from selling complex financial products for at least the next three years after the financial watchdog established it had wrongly sold certain products to unqualified investors.
The Malta Financial and Services Authority announced the action in a notice yesterday evening saying the company would be able to ask for a review of the restriction imposed on its licence in three years’ time.
However, the company reacted forcefully, saying it was consulting its legal advisors over the decision, which it regarded as “one-sided”.
“At the moment we can only express our disappointment that MFSA have adopted a one-sided approach in our regard by practically rejecting all the submissions we made so far. We disagree categorically with the decision communicated to us by MFSA this afternoon and we are currently in discussion with our legal advisors on the next steps,” the directors said in a statement.
The authority said its investigation into the company’s sales practices had established that in a number of instances, the company had “failed to act in the best interest of investors as required in terms of the applicable regulatory framework”.
Following a file review of certain clients, the authority concluded that there were instances when the company sold products that were inappropriate for its clients. It pointed out that the investors in these cases were not experienced or knowledgeable enough to understand the risks involved in the products they were buying.
“The findings represent a major concern to the authority, particularly when one considers that a number of transactions occurred after the authority had issued a circular on the sale of complex financial instruments in February 2009,” it said.
As a result the authority also asked for a review of the clients who invested in the AMR Assured Income Plan or the Arm Capital Growth Bond, two products sold by MFSP.
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Is there a way one can ascertain whether the licence restriction is revoked by MFSA? I’ll bet my can of beer that the ban won’t last up to 6 October 2015.
Had a good laugh by reading the comments by these Laboristi below the article.
http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20121005-mfsa-discovers-mfsp
carmel Cilia – Sat 06-Oct-2012, 11:22
mADE IN MALTA FUQ INVESTIMENT HAZIN TA MADWAR 100 MILJUN sWRO WEHLU PENALI TA 12000 EWRO U QED JOGGEZZJONAW UKOLL.
aldo 98 – Sat 06-Oct-2012, 09:44
HEKK SEWWA TITENBAH WARA SITT SNIEJN WARA LI TKUN ILA TINHEMA U ISSIR IL-FROGA.
DAN HUWA SINTOMU TA KIF MEXXJIN L-AWTORITAJIET FIL-PAJJIZ U IL-POPLU MALTI U GHAWDXI JGHAMEL TAJJEB GHAL L-ISPEJJEZ TIEJGHAW.
GVERN TAL-PARTIT NAZZJONALISTA HUWA GVERN TAL-FREJJEG U BUZULOTTI POLITICI GEWWA DAWN IL-GZEJJER FL-UNJONI EWROPEJA.
Funnier is this sentence from the article itself. The last part of the sentence is how the elves view the financial services:
‘More seriously, most of the buyers of these products are investors in the lower socio-economic strata of society with practically inexistent financial knowledge and experience other than human instinct for financial gain and greed.’
Can’t stop laughing. Just look at the title of this article “Labour Party to protects investors” … by appointing MFSP director on the MEPA Board and perhaps keeping him away from them.
http://www.maltastar.com/dart/20130306-labour-party-to-protects-investors
Have they promised him something on his appeal with MFSA?
This new MEPA board leaves a lot to be desired in experience, knowledge and presence.
We have someone charged with keeping and/or circulating pornography and computer misuse who now works in the Ministry for European Affairs. Why would any appointment made by this government surprise us.
I still can’t understand how the MFSA allows people with no formal tertiary education or professional training to go from selling “pastizzi” to selling investments and in this case complex financial investments (even worse).
What is MFSA waiting for to to regulate the industry? People’s life savings are at stake here, being left penniless in the advanced stages of one’s life is considered by some to be worse than death. It’s criminal.