Prime Minister inaugurates AgriBank head office

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning inaugurated the head office of Agribank plc at Skyparks. Agribank was launched in the UK on March 6. Its business is mostly focused on providing highly competitive, tailored packages to the British agricultural sector to finance the purchase of machinery and equipment. It also pays competitive interest rates on a range of fixed-term, low-risk, guaranteed-rate bonds to UK savers. Roderick Psaila, AgriBank’s Chief Executive Officer, said the bank was very happy with how the business was developing. "The flow of online funding is increasing and there are an increasing number of requests for loans which the Bank’s Credit Committee has to approve.” In a short address, Dr Muscat said his message for the financial services sector was one of continuity. It was important, he said, that Malta maintained its good reputation in financial services. The new bank is chaired by Dr Joe Borg, formerly  EU Commissioner. He said that Malta was selected to house the bank because of its regulatory network, strategic location, tax benefits and the possibility of recruiting staff at competitive rates.