More licensed firms and funds are surrendering their Malta license. The smallest EU country was greylisted in June 2021 by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Wood & Company, a Czech Republic-owned company, registered a Malta company in 2006 namely Wood & Company Funds SICAV p.l.c. The company has now voluntarily surrendered its license for one of its sub-funds, namely the Wood & Company Textiles Fund. This fund was operated by Wood Textiles Holding Limited, a Malta-based company that has since been struck off.
Short Narrative
Wood & Company is a leading investment company in emerging Europe and was founded way back in 1991 in Prague. Its equity market share involves Warsaw, Bucharest, Hungary, Prague, and Vienna.
The directors of the Malta company are Frank Chetcuti Dimech, Vladimir Jaros, and Jan Sykora. Wood & Company also manages real estate funds in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The negative trend of Maltese MFSA licenses being surrendered started in 2018. Fintelegram published the full list.
The MFSA Troubles
The audited financial statements of MFSA for the year ending 2020 show that the Government had to fork out more than €46 million to make good for the losses suffered by the Authority for the years 2019 and 2020. In 2013, the Authority employed a total of 189 employees with 140 being in managerial positions. In 2020, this doubled to 382 with 340 holding a managerial position and 42 working in administration.
The MFSA was highly criticized in recent years for the “blockchain island” campaign. Some €3 million from public funds were spent on marketing Malta’s blockchain flop.
Following Malta’s greylisting, none of the MFSA’s Executive Committee members or Board of Governors resigned. The board includes Edwina Licari, Michelle Mizzi Buontempo, and Christopher Buttigieg.
