MFSA CEO Joseph Gavin to step down ‘later this year’

The CEO of the Malta Financial Services Authority Joseph Gavin will be stepping down from his post later this year, the authority said in a statement on Friday.

In a one-line statement, the MFSA said that Gavin had been absent recently for medical reasons, and that he has now decided to retire early and that he will be stepping down from his post “later this year.”

Gavin was appointed as CEO of the MFSA in September 2021 having been selected following an open call for applications through local and international channels.

He acted as General Counsel within the Central Bank of Ireland between 2009 and 2015, at a time in which the Irish regulator was undergoing significant policy and structural change, and he was instrumental in guiding the Irish watchdog during a sensitive time, post-recession.

He was more recently employed as a Partner and Head of Financial Services at an Irish law firm, providing specialist input in areas relating to regulation and enforcement in financial services.

Gavin was on a remuneration package worth over €160,000, as revealed by The Malta Independent on Sunday soon after his appointment.

He was the subject of controversy after he walked out of an interview with the Times of Malta last year after he objected to the newspaper’s line of questioning when it asked whether he had delved into possible failures at the MFSA which led to Nemea Bank, Pilatus Bank and Satabank being granted a local banking license – a license which all three have since lost.