Is the Bank of Valletta being run like a bank or a trough for the Labour government?

When he announced that Boston currency-printer Crane would be setting up shop in Malta, the Prime Minister thanked a variety of people. John Cassar White, the man his government appointed to the Bank of Valletta chairmanship, was prominent among them.

Why would he do that? I think the reason here is obvious: the Bank of Valletta has once more behaved not like a bank but like a government trough or tool, and has obliged Crane Currency with massive (and massively favourable) facilities that will make its $100 million capital investment possible – including the purchase of the Komori machines off which the company owned by the Prime Minister’s chief of staff will take the standard official distributor’s cut.

Yes, it’s true that the Bank of Valletta is flush with cash because of the huge sums in funny money that have been pouring into it for the last few years – the spectacular law suit about the millions in Gaddafi money is just the tip of the iceberg – but I hear that the bank is under pressure of external scrutiny in that regard too.

Let’s not forget, either, that the Bank of Valletta gave Keith Schembri’s business, which has been officially registering a considerable loss for the last few years, overdraft and loan facilities of €4 million which are tenuously secured or not secured at all. I had discovered this myself and reported on it here.

And then, of course, there’s this. Those are just the ones we know about, by chance.

Bank of Valletta chairman John Cassar White, centre, with the prime minister, and ministers Chris Cardona and Edward Scicluna