Ethics and professional standards in the Maltese primary market issuance

Abstract

Over the past years, the Maltese primary capital market has evolved and given its critical involvement in the expansion of the financial industry and local economy, it is important to maintain its integrity and reliability. The aim of the dissertation is to provide an overview of the present degree of ethical and professional standards within the issuance market. The objective of this research is to evaluate whether Maltese financial] practitioners and the local regulator, the MFSA, are giving the necessary importance required to ethics and professional standards when issuing a financial security for the first time in the market. It will determine to what extent present rules and regulations are encouraging ethical and professional behaviour and how grey areas are being outlined. The main conclusion derived from this study is that present regulations should be modernized to keep up with the progress done within the primary capital markets. The local regulator is in the process of updating these rules to reflect the current stance within this market. To remain ethical and professional, it was observed that entities through the compliance department should also establish specific set of policies and procedures. The values of integrity, ethics, and professionalism are deemed to be of utmost importance in order to ensure the protection of potential investors and sustain a consistent trust in the local primary capital market.