History

Following the attainment of independence in 1964, the Maltese Government sought to remedy a major institutional deficiency in the local economic and financial structure by establishing a central bank. This was first recommended in 1964 by Professor Wolfgang F Stolper on the grounds that there were serious gaps in Malta's financial arrangements, particularly concerning advice to the Government on financial and monetary matters.

The Government consulted a senior official of the Bank of England. Dr Philip L. Hogg, who later became the first Governor of the Bank, arrived in Malta in February 1967 to carry out preliminary organisational and legislative work. The necessary legislation was passed in Parliament on 11 November 1967 and five months later, on 17 April 1968, the Central Bank of Malta was formally established.

The Vernon Club as it was in the late 1920s

In July 1968, the Bank acquired a building, formerly occupied by the Vernon Club on St James Bastion in Valletta. It was completely restructured within the framework of the existing outer walls and inaugurated in February 1971.

In 1987 the Bank started building a modern complex to accommodate its current and future needs, in an area of the bastions nearby known as St. James's Counterguard. Great emphasis was placed on blending the new structure with the historic nature of the site. Plans were drawn up by the renowned Maltese architect Richard England and works began in August 1990. For the first time in over 400 years the bastion walls were uncovered from the inside, revealing that they were built inclining inwards - a fact which was not previously known. The new building, now familiarly known as the ‘Annex’, was opened on 18 April 1993 and is connected to the original building by a historical bridge that crosses over a wide ditch in the Valletta fortifications.

The functions of the Central Bank of Malta have been strengthened through various amendments to the Central Bank Act. In 1994 the Bank was given greater autonomy in the implementation of its monetary policy and was provided with a wider range of instruments to enable it to conduct its policy operations. In 2002, further amendments to the Central Bank Act formally established price stability as the primary objective of the Bank, reinforced its independence and gave the Bank the operational flexibility needed to carry out its functions in a liberalised financial environment, while at the same time providing for more accountability and transparency.

The Central Bank of Malta Act has been further amended in 2007 to integrate the Bank into the Eurosystem and to reflect the obligations imposed by the EC Treaty and the Statute of the European System of Central Banks and of the European Central Bank. By virtue of these amendments, the competence for monetary policy formulation has been transferred from the national to the Community level, upon the Bank's membership of the Eurosystem as from 1 January 2008.

The Central Bank of Malta has had the following Governors;

Malti