At a meeting held on 4 August the Governing Council of the ECB decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 1.50%, 2.25% and 0.75% respectively.
In the first half of this year, 484 counterfeit euro banknotes were reported to the Central Bank of Malta, which counterfeits were all seized in circulation.
Following the inauguration seminar that launched the Forum for Financial Stability held on 23 May 2011, the first formal meeting of the Forum took place on 15 July 2011.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published the results of a stress test run on 90 banks in Europe. The test assesses the resilience of the banks against a scenario that envisages a marked deterioration in the main macroeconomic variables. The scenario includes a sovereign shock. Bank of Valletta plc, which was the only domestic bank that participated directly in the exercise, passed the test.
Professor Josef Bonnici has been officially appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Malta for a period of five years commencing on 1 July 2011. He was presented with his letter of appointment by Dr Lawrence Gonzi, Prime Minister of Malta.
