Nemea, another Bical?

This week, Nemea Bank Malta has been put under administration over ‘serious’ regulatory shortcomings. In summer last year, Nemea Bank made the new in Netherlands and Belgium as they were offering term deposit accounts remunerated at 4% while local banks were mainly offering negative interests rates. This has resulted in investigations started by the European Central Bank who ultimately asked the Malta Financial Services Authority to investigate the matter. As a result of this inspection, a number of serious regulatory shortcomings have been identified and the Maltese authority has decided to take regulatory action to safeguard the interests of depositors and other creditors of the bank. I wonder which interests are being safeguarded, as companies can not access or transfer their funds from Nemea Bank. Many customers opened their accounts at Nemea Bank after having lived an ordeal in Cyprus when the Cypriot banking system had collapsed. Malta had been advertised as a safe haven for financial matters and as being well regulated. Well, we can’t say that anymore as once again, Malta Financial Services Authority has failed in its role.