Looking more closely at the external dimension, an important characteristic that distinguishes us from other models, such as the one in Cyprus, is the fact that the international banking sector in Malta is only lightly linked to the domestic economy and to the remainder of the Maltese banking system. Meanwhile, unlike the situation in other countries, the core domestic banks have very low reliance on non-resident deposits. They operate along traditional lines, applying a prudent business model and, like the rest of the banking sector, carrying minimal exposure to securities issued in the distressed economies. The core domestic banks are highly capitalised, profitable and liquid, and the other categories of the banking sector are similarly robust. …in terms of interest rates, Malta needs to further align with its peers. Although various indicators place Malta with the stronger performing group, there is room for further improvement. Interest rates on loans to businesses are currently around 2% to 3% higher in Malta as compared with Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria, and Luxembourg. In contrast, deposit rates offered by Maltese banks are broadly in line with those across the euro area, as shown in Chart 6. As a result, bank interest margins are higher in Malta, as shown in Chart 7. A closer alignment of margins with those of our peers appears to be warranted. The recently proposed Budget measure to conduct a review of bank charges to businesses makes sense.
Africa Meeting of the Econometric Society  Introductory Speech of Mr. Abdellatif Jouahri Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib  Rabat, July 11 2019  Honorable guests, Distinguished researchers and professors, Dear friends and colleagues, Ladies and gentlemen,  First of all, I would like to assure you that I will not venture giving a lecture in front of such an audience. I am here today more to listen. That being said, I would like to start by expressing how pleased I am to welcome you in Bank Al-Maghrib and to wish our visitors from abroad a wonderful stay in Morocco. I would also like to thank all officials for joining us, the distinguished researchers for kindly accepting to speak at the plenary sessions and the mostly-young researchers for coming from different spheres to present their works. I also extend my warmest thanks to Econometric Society which approached us to organize this conference, thus paving the way for a valuable cooperation between both teams. We view this meeting as an opportunity for us as a central bank, as well as for all the national institutions here represented today, to inquire about the progress made in economics research, namely with regard to quantitative economics. It is also an opportunity to strengthen the bonds with the academia and initiate new cooperation relationships.