BOV employees graduate through IFS Malta

A group of 26 BOV employees recently completed courses of studies through the Institute of Financial Services Malta. The successful employees were invited to the IFS Malta Graduation ceremony presided over by Professor Frank Bezzina, Acting President of Malta.

BOV employees qualified in various disciplines, including the Award in Maltese Financial Regulation, the Diploma for Financial Advisors, the ICA Diploma in Anti Money Laundering as well as the recently launched Award in Environmental, Social & Corporate Governance (ESG).

Bezzina, together with  IFS President Kenneth B Micallef presented certificates to the successful students, whilst Ray Debattista, on behalf of BOV’s People and Culture, presented the BOV Prize to Robert Spiteri, who emerged as the top candidate for the ESG Award.

IFS Malta President, Kenneth B Micallef thanked Bank of Valletta for its support and explained the Institute’s role in fostering financial services education. “IFS Malta is focused on actively supporting banking and financial services practitioners and students through the provision of specialized academic qualifications and training. The Institute is a licensed education organisation that facilitates, delivers, and awards Further and Higher Education programmes in the area of financial services. The Institute has key alliances in place with renowned local and foreign professional educational bodies such as the University of Malta and the London Institute of Banking and Finance through which it provides high-calibre training courses to satisfy the needs of the ever-developing financial services sector.”

Debattista explained that “at Bank of Valletta we strongly believe in continued investment in our people, improving expertise and professionalism to continue building long-term working relationships with our customers. We are also delighted to witness our people exploring new areas of expertise. This year, 13 of our people were among those who studied for the Award in ESG, an area which features highly in the Bank’s priorities given the Bank’s commitment towards ESG principles.”

Debattista also explained how the bank supports its employees in furthering their studies. “We appreciate the fact that our people strive hard to develop personally, and we understand the sacrifice in balancing personal life and work. We continually encourage our people to invest in career progression and we do this by offering tangible support through study grants with external educational institutions such as IFS Malta.”

These grants supplement the courses and ongoing training that the Bank provides internally through its Learning and Development Centre, a learning hub that offers a broad spectrum of courses for employees, with several courses recognised by the Malta Further & Higher Education Authority, that also qualify under the Maltese Qualified Framework in MQF Levels 5/6.

The Bank has also recently revamped its e-learning platform, investing in technology to offer alternative learning opportunities.