BOV gets two-month correspondent banking respite, still seeking new relationships

Bank of Valletta has secured an extension to its US Dollar correspondence relationship with Raiffeisen Bank International by two months to 31st May 2021.

Meanwhile, the Bank said that it was making progress to source alternative arrangements for its USD correspondent transactions.

Raiffeisen had originally announced that it was seeking to terminate its US dollar relationship with BOV last October. With a number of other international lenders, such as ING, also terminating their relationship, the Austrian bank was the only remaining correspondent bank that provided such transactions.

The closure of correspondent relationships was a big challenge for the financial services industry and ancillary service as such banks are normally used by local banks on the international markets to buy, sell or money transfer transactions to facilitate foreign currency exchange and payments.