Tonio Depasquale resigns as director of La Valette, Wignacourt funds

Bank of Valletta's former chief executive Tonio Depasquale has resigned his post as director of the La Valette Funds Sicav, and the Wignacourt Funds - two fund management companies owned by the bank.

In a statement, BOV said the decision of Tonio Depasquale to resign from the boards of the two SICAVs was a personal decision that followed his retirement from Bank of Valletta last December, bringing to a close a career of over 40 years of distinguished service, the last eight of which he served as the Bank's CEO.

"The bank reiterates that the MFSA investigation, published at the time when Mr Depasquale was still serving as its Chief Executive Officer, fully exonerated all BOV officials from any accusations of taking advantage of privileged information.

"Tonio Depasquale continues to serve as a Director on the Boards of Valletta Fund Management Ltd., and Valletta Fund Services Ltd., subsidiaries of the BOV Group as well as the Board of Middle Sea Insurance p.l.c., an associate company of the BOV Group."

BOV said it "deplored" any insinuation that Depasquale's resignation was linked to the ongoing MFSA investigation.

Depasquale's resignation, announced in the stock exchange, comes a day after the Labour party made a public appeal to the Malta Financial Services Authority to publish the third investigation into the La Valette's property fund, which concerns the mis-selling of the financial instrument to retail clients.

As CEO, Depasquale's term came to an end under the cloud of the La Valette property fund saga, which forced the bank to pay over €44 million in compensation to investors who lost their money in the fund.

The fund was the subject of three investigations by the MFSA. Bank of Valletta was fined an administrative penalty of some €350,000 for breach of investment services rules.

In June 2011, the bank offered investors a conditional compensation offer of 75c per share after a series of judicial protests were filed against the bank in the name of the property fund investors, who were in the main represented by stockbrokers Finco Treasury Management. 

A total of 2,021 out of 2,075 investors - 97.4% - accepted the offer, with BOV issuing payments of €44.1 million for 60.3 million shares held in the fund.

In a second investigation by the MFSA, the regulator issued a sanction against former La Valette director John C. Ripard, reprimanding him for disposing of his holdings in the property fund whilst in possession of sensitive information which was not available to the public and which he became privy to in his capacity as a director of the Sicav.