Bank of Valletta helps Malta SMEs innovate and create new jobs thanks to an EU programme

Keith Abela Fitzpatrick wants to renovate the way people do business in Malta. His company, Corporate Business Solutions, creates custom software to help companies better manage their finances, operations, trading, and human resource activities.

“Usually, salesmen would go and pick up an order, note it on a piece of paper, and then repeat this tedious system,” says Fitzpatrick. “We offer instead an automated operation, significantly speeding up the whole process and saving thousands of euros.”

Corporate Business Solutions is one of 740 companies in Malta benefitting from the SME Initiative of the EU's financing arm, the European Investment Bank. Set up in 2015, this initiative aims to stimulate private investments and improve the access of small and medium-sized enterprises to financing across Europe.

In 2022, there were 33 442 SMEs operating in Malta. They are important drivers of growth and innovation, creating new digital technologies and products that change lives every day. Corporate Business Solution, for example, has used its innovative software to improve the distribution of food, medicines, and public services in Malta.

“The financing was a catalyst for our company’s progress,” says Fitzpatrick. “More companies could benefit from such endeavours."

The European Investment Bank, which is owned by the 27 EU member states, signed an agreement to provide €28 million to Bank of Valletta in 2022, adding to the existing financing of over €70 million in 2015. In turn, Bank of Valletta used that money to finance Corporate Business Solutions. It’s just one of many investments in Malta by the European Union’s financing arm. Last year, we invested another €20 million in Malta.

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