An interview with HSBC conducted by the Chair of the Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) and published a few days before the bank announced its departure from the country was described as “surreal” by financial services practitioners.

MSE Chairman Joseph Portelli completely missed the elephant in the room in his interview with HSBC Bank CEO Geoffrey Fichte, which is part of a series in which Portelli, entrusted by the government with the administration of Malta’s only stock exchange, plays the journalist interviewing stakeholders.

The interview on ‘Executive Spotlight‘, was posted on the MSE website when Malta’s only international banking institution announced its departure from the island.

Despite persistent rumours over the years that HSBC was shopping around to sell its shares in Malta, Portelli failed to address the issue.

Instead, Portelli asked Fichte about the investment HSBC was planning for Malta. The CEO played along, giving the impression that all was plain sailing.

Responding to a series of mild questions by the MSE Chairman, who also sits on the advisory council of the MFSA, the regulator of Malta’s financial service sector, including HSBC, Geoffrey Fichte reiterated his bank’s long-term commitment to Malta and its continuous investment in its people and new technology, such as Artificial Intelligence.

Joseph Portelli’s interview was promoted on the Malta Stock Exchange website.

While sources at the MSE confirmed that their chairman interviewed the HSBC boss just a few days before the bank’s official announcement of its exit from Malta, various practitioners expressed concern about the appropriateness of such an interview and its timing.

“The chairman of the Malta Stock Exchange should not host interviews. This is embarrassing. His job is to administer the stock exchange and direct it. Can you imagine the CEO of the London Stock Exchange conducting interviews with companies listed on his exchange?” a stockbroker told The Shift.

Another financial practitioner said the least the MSE Chair could have done was to ask the fundamental questions that any serious interviewer would ask and not give a platform to a listed company to promote itself.

Last week, HSBC announced its long-awaited exit from Malta, calling it a “strategic review of its shareholding.”

At first, Malta’s branch, for which Fichte is responsible, denied the news that his bank was in talks with APS Bank (the Church’s bank) on a possible sellout.

The tune soon changed with another company announcement that no decisions had been made yet as the exit process was just starting.

Earlier this year, Geoffrey Fichte confirmed that his bank had no intention of leaving Malta. In an interview published by The Times of Malta in January, the HSBC CEO said: “I was hired with the mandate to grow and improve our bank and manage it for the long run. Our actions are ones of investing to improve the business over the long term.”

He insisted that Malta had nothing to worry about HSBC’s commitment to the economy.

News that APS was in talks to acquire HSBC was met with scepticism, as many consider the bank too small to take over Malta’s second-largest bank.

Regulators are expected to turn down any such possible takeover due to competition concerns.