WATCH | MFSA publishes first-of-its-kind journal for financial supervisors

The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has launched the Journal of Financial Supervisors Academy (JFSA), an international academic journal dedicated to research and innovation in financial regulation and supervision.

This initiative builds on the MFSA's commitment to knowledge sharing, including a yearly curriculum composed of various training programmes and a post-graduate diploma in financial regulation and compliance developed with the University of Malta. The journal aims to fill a gap by focusing specifically on financial supervision, a topic not covered by existing journals.

Volume 1 addressed key international regulatory issues such as the Capital Markets Union, supervisory independence, Artificial Intelligence, and crypto assets regulation.

The journal targets supervisors, regulators, policymakers, and academics, encouraging submissions globally through a call for papers.

It is published annually with a rigorous editorial review to ensure high academic standards. Prof. Christopher P. Buttigieg, Chief Officer Supervision at the MFSA, highlights the journal's role in bridging academia and practical supervision, sharing Malta's advanced frameworks in digital finance and cyber supervision, and fostering international collaboration among regulators and scholars.

Chris, JFSA is an international academic journal, dedicated to research and innovation in financial regulation. Why did the MFSA feel the need for such a journal?

Over the past five years, we have been growing, and we've been strengthening the Authority’s' capacity in supervisory work. As a first step, we established the Financial Supervisors Academy, where on a yearly basis we conduct an organisation wide training needs analysis. And as a result of that training needs analysis, we provide training to our staff on various aspects of financial supervision to ensure that the Authority’s members of staff have the necessary expertise and technical competencies to carry out evolving supervisory responsibilities.

For example, this year’s curriculum focused on Artificial Intelligence, bringing to Malta experts for the University of Bocconi who provided us with insights into the challenges and regulatory strategies surrounding the use of Artificial Intelligence in the financial sector. We're providing constant training on different aspects of the Markets In Crypto Assets Regulation, not only to our FinTech function, but also to all supervisory functions ensuring they keep abreast with the latest developments in the field. That was the first step.

The next step was to create a post-graduate diploma with the University. We worked with the Faculty of Economics, Management & Accountancy (FEMA) and jointly developed a practice-driven programme in compliance and regulation. The diploma focuses on different aspects, such as, regulation, governance, compliance, risk management, internal audit, digital finance, sustainable finance, compliance management, and anti-money laundering. The aim of the diploma is to build capacity in the financial services industry, whereby practitioners in this field are equipped to serve in various roles such as those in compliance and directorship. The next step in this journey was to have our very own journal dedicated to financial regulation and supervision.

The idea is to tackle the most pressing subjects which are currently being debated at an international level, both from an academic point of view, and supervisory point of view. The JFSA in a sense serves as a bridge for enhanced dialogue between academia and practice.

In the first volume of the journal, we tackled the Capital Markets Union, and the independence of financial supervision, which is very important. In 2023 the European supervisory authorities published a set of principles on independence, and they're currently working on setting up a framework for monitoring these principles.  So we leveraged our network of professionals and extended an invitation to one of the key players in this area working on the ground at ESMA, to provide her perspective on this subject.

Chris, how has your personal journey shaped your vision for these milestones?

I've been in financial regulation for 25 years now. I joined the MFSA in the year 2000. At the time, I was an analyst. Then I went up the ladder slowly over the years, and I'm now the Chief Officer of Supervision. In the meantime, I also progressed in my academic life.

I did my Master's degree and pursued a PhD with Sussex University. I've always been interested in learning more. In fact, one of the reasons why I've remained at the MFSA is that it gives you the opportunity to learn, grow, and be part of what we refer to as the European System of Financial Supervision and the European Supervisory Authorities, where the developments are taking place. That is what has kept me here. And as a result of that, I always continued researching, writing papers on different ideas and different developments that are taking place. An area I particularly focused on is supervision, as I find it to be quite facinating in the way that its been developing over the years.

Following a discussion with Kenneth Farrugia, MFSA CEO, he suggested we launch our own journal. This publication would serve as a vital conduit for sharing our research on financial supervision with the industry and other regulatory bodies—an area that is currently underexplored in this format. There are journals which solely focus on either regulation or compliance, but very few that cover both and the practical aspects of financial supervision. Consequently, we initiated the process to launch a journal that will provide a dedicated platform for academics and supervisors to exchange ideas, best practices, and research.

Malta has developed advanced regulatory frameworks for digital finance, making us one of the first European countries to establish a proper structure for regulating crypto assets. As an Authority, we also took proactive steps by developing a framework for cyber supervision and establishing our own dedicated cyber security function. We believe we are particularly advanced in these areas compared to many other jurisdictions. We constantly share our developments with fellow regulators, even offering them training opportunities here in Malta. Therefore, when we launched the journal, we immediately distributed it to all our peers across different jurisdictions and the European Supervisory Authorities, extending the same opportunity to participate through our call for papers.

So, it's not just a local journal but one with an international reach.

What is your target audience? Who would benefit from this journey?

The journal’s core audience includes supervisors, regulators, policy makers, and academics, but it also has a relevance to industry professionals working in compliance and financial regulation.

Can anyone make a submission for editorial content to be included in this journal?

Anyone who's interested can submit a paper through our website, obviously following the guidelines of the journal. It needs to be an academic piece or a professional insight, tackling areas relating to financial regulation, compliance and supervision. We have invited many regulators and academics across the world to contribute.

How often is this journal going to be published?

At the moment, it's annually. It took us two years to set it up and to issue the first volume. It is important that it is accepted in the academic world. And for that to be the case, we need to make sure that there's proper peer review of the articles so that once we issue the publication, it's of a high standard.

You've mentioned that you are already working on the second issue. Can you give us a glimpse into what we can expect in maybe the second or other upcoming issues?

In the call for papers, we've indicated some topics that we’re interested in. One of them remains digital finance which is extremely important and an area where Malta is trying to focus its energy for growth. We are also looking to delve into the world of cross-border finance, geopolitical risk in financial services, as well as simplification and burden reduction.

You said the JFSA was established to bridge the gap between academic research and practical supervision. Are you confident that this journal will actually do that?

What I can say is that we're doing everything that needs to be done to make it happen. We're giving it a lot of exposure. We've written and we've engaged across Europe, and we are giving it the visibility it deserves. We are working very hard to make it happen.