Emergency MFSA meeting underway to discuss Pilatus Bank's future

Updated 3pm Pilatus Bank's fate in Malta is being discussed by Malta's financial regulator, with its local banking licence reportedly in the balance.  The supervisory council of the Malta Financial Services Authority - the arm tasked with issuing banking licences - has been locked in a meeting since 8.30am on Wednesday morning, sources told the Times of Malta.  Supervisory council members are discussing what to do with Pilatus Bank after its chairman Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad was arrested in New York on charges of having evaded US sanctions against Iran.  The meeting was still underway at the time of writing.  The MFSA's supervisory council is chaired by the authority's director-general, with each of the authority's directors also having a seat. It meets on its own volition.  Whether the council can revoke a bank's licence on the strength of an indictment in a third country remains to be seen, given that Pilatus Bank's name does not figure in Mr Sadr's bill of indictment.  Should the bank's licence be pulled, the revocation process is likely to take months.  Earlier on Wednesday, activists called on the MFSA to revoke Pilatus Bank's licence by noon, slamming the bank as a...