Banker to the banks and the public sector
The Central Bank of Malta is banker to the Government and the local credit institutions. It provides the banks with liquidity whenever required through open market operations and collateralised intra-day lending. The Bank participates in, and operates TARGET2-Malta, which forms part of TARGET2 of the Eurosystem. It also supports the clearing of retail inter-bank payments through the operation of the Malta Clearing House for daily settlement through TARGET2.
Banks maintain call and term deposit balances with the Bank. If need be they may obtain short-term loans and advances from the Bank secured by pledging or depositing specified assets with the Bank. In addition to the open market operations mentioned above, the Bank can provide refinancing facilities to the banks by purchasing eligible assets at a discount.
As part of the conduct of monetary policy, the Central Bank of Malta requires credit institutions to maintain reserve deposits with the Bank. As from 1 January 2008, the Central Bank of Malta has adopted the ECB’s minimum reserve system. The legal framework for this system is laid down in Article 19 of the Statute of the ESCB, Council Regulation (EC) No 2531/98 of 23 November 1998 concerning the application of minimum reserves by the ECB and Regulation (EC) No 1052/2008 of the ECB of 22 October 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 1745/2003 (ECB/2003/9) on the application of minimum reserves (ECB/2008/10). The reserve requirement of each institution is determined in relation to the reserve base. Balance sheet data referring to the end of a given calendar month is used to determine the reserve base for the maintenance period starting in the calendar month two months later.
The Bank also acts as banker to a number of public sector institutions to which it provides various banking facilities, including deposit accounts and foreign exchange services.
Data Protection Notice for Electronic Payments
Personal data in relation to transactions effected via SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) may be required to be disclosed to the United States authorities in order to comply with legal requirements applicable in the United States for the prevention of crime.