Malta

An insolvency fund has been set up by the Malta Tourism Authority to provide security to customers in the event of a licensed travel agent becoming insolvent, Times of Malta reported. Customers who would have booked travel packages that were not availed of because of insolvency, would get a refund of the payments made if they would have bought their packages from an agent subscribed to the fund.

Malta has the most inefficient insolvency proceedings of all the EU member states, a damning report by the European Commission has revealed. The report coincides with new EU rules on business insolvency, aimed at increasing the opportunities for companies in financial difficulties to restructure early on so as to prevent bankruptcy and avoid laying off staff, the Times of Malta reported.

Taxpayers may end up footing the bill for third-party claims related to the collapse of Setanta Insurance, the Irish Times reported. The Maltese-registered insurer went into liquidation in April leaving 75,000 motor policyholders in Ireland with no cover. It had been selling mainly commercial motor insurance through brokers and was known as a low-cost operator. Initially Minister for Finance Michael Noonan signalled the industry-funded Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) would cover all outstanding third-party claims emanating from the collapse.

The risks posed by hosting a large financial industry became a flash point on Wednesday as the Cyprus bailout trained the spotlight on other small euro nations that depend on the sector for jobs and economic growth, The Wall Street Journal reported. The issue has become a sore spot mainly for Luxembourg and Malta after the debate over Cyprus prompted European ministers and politicians to question the viability of housing a large financial center in a small country.

The target date for the completion of Air Malta’s restructuring plan has been extended to the end of the month as the “sensitivity” of the task made it more difficult to meet the early January deadline, Timesofmalta.com reported. The government had set itself the ambitious target of having the plan in place by early January for submission to the European Commission, but this has now been pushed back by a few weeks. Despite this, the government is still well ahead of its EU deadline for the plan and there will be ample time to discuss the reform programme with the European Commission.