Steve Mallia, Archbishop Scicluna, and the Questions Surrounding Crediabank’s HSBC Takeover

While Steve Mallia was busy launching personal attacks against me on Facebook and in an opinion piece published in The Times, more serious financial developments were taking place in the banking sectors that are of direct interest to Mallia. The financial advisor Paul Bonello has issued yet another pointed public intervention — this time raising serious questions about the proposed takeover of HSBC Malta by Crediabank. In a previous post, Bonello accused Mallia of being a local media representative for Crediabank. 

Bonello’s latest post does not merely focus on market movements or regulatory delays. Instead, it highlights a striking development: the sharp fall in Crediabank’s share price on the Athens Stock Exchange while its acquisition bid remains pending before the European Central Bank.

But Bonello goes further still.

He openly challenges the silence of those who should, in the public interest, be asking difficult questions — including individuals linked to Church media and Malta’s journalistic institutions.

In this context, Bonello draws attention to the relationship among senior Church figures, media insiders, and a bank seeking to gain control of one of Malta’s most significant financial institutions.

Bonello specifically questions whether the editor of Church media — who also serves as President of the Institute of Maltese Journalists — has any intention of investigating the connections between Archbishop Scicluna, Steve Mallia, and Crediabank.

These are not trivial matters. When large-scale financial acquisitions are underway, public confidence depends on transparency, scrutiny, and independence — not on networks of personal friendship and institutional silence.

At this stage, it is reasonable to expect Archbishop Scicluna to address the nature of his relationship with Steve Mallia publicly, particularly given the growing perception among members of the clergy and the public that this “friendship” has become a subject of ridicule.

The public deserves clarity. The Church, if it wishes to retain moral authority, cannot afford to appear entangled in the very power structures that demand investigation.