Central Bank formally announces ‘temporary’ resignation of Edward Scicluna as Governor

On Wednesday (today), the Central Bank of Malta formally announced Edward Scicluna's decision to step aside from his role as Governor of the bank.

The bank attributed this decision to "devote more time to defend his innocence which he reaffirms." His resignation will be "for a temporary period" until the outcome of the court proceedings.

"This decision has been communicated to the President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde," the Central Bank noted in a statement.

On the other hand, the Cabinet of Ministers "has taken note of the decision and finds it to be in the national interest."

Just last week, the court found sufficient evidence for Prof. Scicluna to stand trial for fraud, misappropriation, and making fraudulent gain through abuse of his office.

Prof. Scicluna had refused to step down from his role but has since been forced to bow to pressure from civil society and from within Government to prevent the continuation of the embarrassing situation.

Therefore, the Government and Prof. Scicluna came to a mutual decision that he would suspend himself with full pay from the role.

To replace his absence, Alexander Demarco, who was serving in the role of Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Malta was appointed to perform the duties of Governor, as of Thursday 1st August (tomorrow).

Mr Demarco joined the institution in 1984, and spent most of the subsequent three decades working in its Economic Research Department as senior economist.

He was later appointed as Head of the EU and International Relations Department, and eventually Head of the Financial Stability Department.

In 2014, he was appointed Deputy Governor and tasked with overseeing its Financial Stability function.

Furthermore, he was a member of the Board of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority and rhe Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) until July 2017, after which he was appointed Deputy Governor responsible for Monetary Policy.

His CBM profile mentions his direct involvement in the construction of the bank's first econometric model and his work on its macroeconomic projections.