This course will provide a high-level overview of the Market Abuse Regulation and will serve as an introduction for anyone unfamiliar with the Regulation. The course will include an overview of the three offences of insider dealing, unlawful disclosure of inside information, and market manipulation, the various obligations imposed on market participants by the Regulation, as well as central key themes such as inside information. Participants will also be given a general understanding of the MFSA’s oversight function in respect of market abuse and applicable sanctions. Practical examples will be provided throughout the course to better illustrate the issues being discussed.
This session will provide an in-depth look at the continuing disclosure obligations emanating from Chapter 5 of the Capital Markets Rules applicable to Issuers in terms of the said Rules. This session will cover both periodic financial reporting as well as ad hoc disclosure obligations, and should be particularly relevant to equity and debt issuers listed on the main market of the Malta Stock Exchange as well as entities contemplating listing.
This course is an introduction to understanding how to use financial information to value and analyse companies. The course focuses on the practical application of financial statements analysis. Students will learn how to create and analyse financial ratios such as debt to equity, profit margins and more. Participants will gain analytical skills involved in reading and interpreting the financial health and profitability of a company through quantitative and qualitative techniques. A number of case studies and financial statements of actual companies will be analysed.
This course aims to provide a high-level overview of Environmental (E), Social (S) and Governance (G) criteria (ESG), and will serve as a general introduction to this fast-growing and ever-changing sector. The course will be informally split into three distinct sections; the first of which will largely focus on the main tenets of ESG: what it means, what it seeks to achieve and its development through time. The second section of this course will focus on the pertinent regulatory developments in the ESG sector, including the Taxonomy Regulation, the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) and the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and their implications on market players falling within their scope. The third and final section of this course will then seek to provide examples of the practical applicability of ESG both locally and internationally, and will further explore what the future holds for this expanding sector. Kindly note that this course has been POSTPONED to a later date.
This module will give a comprehensive overview of property valuations and reports, showing what a good quality and realistic valuation should assess, and explaining the methodology of creating a good quality property valuation. It will also address the common mistakes and errors commonly found in valuations and the importance of having a good standard of valuation since this is often the basis of investment decisions.
Participants will learn the basic investing concepts, the many different variations of traditional investments available and which type of investments are most suitable for their needs. The course will delve into the history of the capital markets, their role in the economy, the different types of markets, and the activities of exchanges. Participants will also learn about the difference between bonds and equities, what they are, their special characteristics and terminology, how they are priced and the risks of owning such investments. Students will also learn about various investment styles such as value, growth, and fund investing. Students will be taught how to and why they should take a critical look at all investing options based on sound risk/reward assumptions.
THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED
The Malta Stock Exchange is hosting an exclusive event as part of World Investor Week 2024. Join us for our "Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy" ceremony and an insightful investment workshop.
Event Schedule
8:45 AM - Registration
9:00 AM - Networking Breakfast
9:30 AM - Opening Ceremony & Ring the Bell for Financial Literacy
9:45 AM - Investment Workshop
Featured Workshop: Investing Essentials: Understanding Risk, Rewards and Scams
Join our distinguished speaker, Patrick DeBattista, for an enlightening session covering:
✓ Fundamentals of investing for all experience levels
✓ Distinguishing between shares, bonds, and funds
✓ Strategies for effective risk management
✓ Adapting your investor profile through life stages
✓ Safeguarding against digital-age financial scams
About Our Speaker: Patrick DeBattista
Patrick brings 20 years of financial expertise to this workshop. His credentials include:
CFA charter holder and Certified Public Accountant
Master's degrees in Financial Analysis and Accountancy
Founder of Finance For You
Lecturer at the University of Malta, MCAST, and various business schools
Collaborator with global media platforms promoting financial literacy.
Cyber security is a key issue that affects everyone in the digital environment we live and work in. The aim of this course is to ensure that the end user has enough security awareness to turn them into a strong last line of defence in identifying cyber-attacks and protecting your organisation. This interesting and practical course will help you and your staff in an interactive course. The key benefits will be the change in users’ behaviour to reduce risk from phishing and other cyber attacks, prioritisation and improvement of incident response and reporting of incidents and ultimately the reduction of successful phishing attacks and malware infections.
This course is designed to familiarise attendees with the practical and real life circumstances of implementing a robust due diligence process. The Customer due diligence process (CDD) involves much more than carrying our research using the passport or other customer data available using one of the various monitoring systems and a ‘Google’ search. There are clear responsibilities that are related to AML/CFT, and this course will give a practical and hands-on approach on how to carry out the various CDD checks, how to deal with practical issues that are encountered on a day-today basis, and provide a practical insight to help subject persons, including compliance officers, compliance teams and MLROs, carry out their duties.
This course aims to offer participants an overview of the regulatory and compliance landscape by introducing elements of the AIFMD, MIFID, and UCITS directives. Students will be provided a foundation to be able to understand financial regulation and compliance requirements of an MFSA licensed company. The course will explore the optimal compliance structure of a fund or management company including their basic legal structure, the fiduciary duties of a board of directors, investment committee, MLRO, and compliance officer. Furthermore various AIFMD policies will be discussed including risk management, remuneration, valuation, insider dealing polices, etc.
This course has been tailored to provide attendees with a best practice approach in implementing a sound corporate governance framework, in line with the regulator’s expectations. The MFSA’s launch of the Corporate Governance Code in 2022 has established a set of principles which are to be applied by authorized persons on a ‘best effort basis’. The Corporate Governance Code is applicable across sectors, to all unlisted entities authorised by the MFSA.
Whether at top executive, middle management or even junior administrator level, conveying information, a message or even intent clearly, flawlessly and in appropriate detail is critical for getting the message across, establishing attention, winning business and building continued success. Business writing must form a credible basis upon which sound decisions may be taken. In this regard, besides communicating information accurately in an appropriate format, effective business writing demonstrates rationale, enhances credibility, carries influential impact, and conveys suitable courtesy. All powerful determinants for maintaining interest, rapport and enhancing sustainable achievement in the world of business. This short course gives practitioners, managers and administrators insights into sharpening and enhancing their business writing and communication skills in multiple and varied business contexts such as writing with impact and garnering results, drawing up reports as a sound basis for decision-making and outcome reporting, minute taking as well as delivering and presenting to an audience.
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is a new regulation aiming to establish Digital Operational Resilience for the Financial Sector and compliance with this new regulation comes into effect in January 2025. The Act aims to create common EU rules on digital operational resilience, ensure safeguards for ICT risk management and mitigation against cyber-attacks and other risks are in place, provide oversight in terms of critical ICT Third party services and dependencies and reduce financial and administrative burden on organisations. This course will help attendees to learn more about the updated Regulatory Technical Standards and associated guidance notes in preparation for compliance with this Act in January 2025
Raising capital is a difficult but essential part of running Capital markets - practical issues any business. Even the most creative ideas or business plans can only get you so far. It is therefore inevitable that businesses will need funding in order to grow. Although one of the biggest challenges businesses face is raising finance, various options exist and businesses can raise capital through capital markets, bank finance, private placements or business angels amongst others. The training session will give an overview of all sources of finance, focusing more on the capital markets available in Malta, and the practical issues encountered when raising finance and how business go around them.
The Data Protection Officer (DPO) is a previously existing role that has been rendered mandatory in certain instances by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). DPOs are responsible for overseeing data protection strategy and implementation to ensure compliance with GDPR requirements. Now that the GDPR is in force, it is important that organisations are compliant with the many regulations and operational requirements provided by the GDPR. This course is designed to help DPOs fully understand their role, assisting them in setting up of the right processes and procedures as well as control measures and helping DPOs determine whether the appointment of a DPO is mandatory for their organisation. In view of this and the significant possible consequences of noncompliance, it is recommended that DPOs attend this course.
This course covers material relating to structured products also known as market linked investments or synthetic investment instruments which are designed to facilitate highly bespoke risk and return objectives. Students will learn how investment banks pre-package financial instruments using derivatives, a basket of securities, single securities, and other capital market products. Participants will learn that structured products are normally used as a low cost alternative to a direct investment as part of the asset allocation process or to hedge risk found within an investment portfolio.
The real estate sector is going through a time of change, having penetrated the larger capital markets and is now much more affected by national and global economic trends. Besides looking into the basic principles and theory of valuation and gaining knowledge on the fundamentals of valuation practice, this course: • will look into developments and trends affecting the nature of and the need for valuation services in Malta in the short to medium term; • aims to stimulate debate amongst valuers and clients/ users of valuations over what action is needed to ensure the provision of quality valuation services that the modern economy requires; and • will enable you to assess the property market and be in a position to recognise which situations require which types of valuation, choose and apply the right methodology and create the valuation report in line with best practice and international standards.
The Compliance Officer is the regulator’s invisible arm in that it ensures that the institution’s business is being conducted in line with regulations, internal policies and procedures. Checks are carried out primarily through compliance monitoring programmes; be they on-site or desk based reviews. The fulcrum of the findings prompted by the reviews is to bring these to the attention of senior management. Senior management is ultimately responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the compliance function and in ensuring that the business is carried out in line with regulatory requirements.
This course is designed to familiarize attendees with red flags and Money Laundering (ML) indicators, as well as the robust measures required to manage ML risks. In today’s world, robust AML controls are not only necessary to safeguard reputation, but also mandated by the Regulator. As ML risk cannot always be controlled and reduced to an acceptable level, the course delves into the reporting requirements imposed by the Regulator, including the reporting of suspicious activities and transactions, requests for information and the annual Risk Evaluation Questionnaire. Specifically concerning the latter, the course goes into the purpose and aim of the REQ, the sections and the information that is normally requested by the Regulator. Reference will be made to the FIAU implementing procedures Part 1, as well as official guidance issued by the FIAU on the subject matter.
Complying with the AML/CFT framework is an increasingly important regulatory requirement for all subject persons. This course, two-part session will outline the applicable Maltese AML/CFT laws and regulations, provide in-depth coverage of key ML/TF obligations of subject persons and discuss the effective implementation of risk-based policies, procedures, controls and measures. Following this course, participants should have a much better understanding of the key concepts of ML/TF, typologies, trends, safeguards and measures.