MBA presentation at event organised by European social partners on the 26th September 2019

The Secretary General of the Malta Bankers’ Association (MBA), Karol Gabarretta, was recently invited to deliver a presentation at the 2nd workshop organised by various European social partners, namely UNI Europa Finance, the European Savings Banks Group (ESBG), the European Association of Co-Operative Banks (EACB) and the European Banking Federation (EBF) – of which the MBA is a member – which dealt with the theme; “The Impact of banking regulation on employment: Analysing best practice at European, national and company law level and developing joint approaches through European Social Dialogue“. Mr Gabarretta’s presentation was entitled, “The MBA’s perspective – Key Takeaways from the theme; The Impact of Banking Regulation on Employment.” The session, besides highlighting to the numerous representatives from the above-mentioned European social partners, the role played by the Association, also provided high level information on the local banking sector.

The thrust of Mr Gabarretta’s presentation focused on the various significant organisational structural changes and recruitment in expert risk and compliance resources within the banking sector in Europe (including Malta) over the period 2008 – 2018, in risk culture, mitigation and governance as a result of the sector facing up to the challenges posed by the huge influx of the new banking prudential legislative and regulatory requirements. Mr Gabarretta further referred to the advent of the Single Supervisory Mechanism in 2014 as being a further catalyst which accelerated the processes highlighted above particularly within the significant institutions overseen by joint supervisory teams from the ECB and national authorities (the MFSA, in the local scenario).