ABSTRACT
Malta’s banking history is a short one. It carries all the characteristics of a small island economy in the Mediterranean which for long years was the colony of many powers. Nonetheless, it features a very full array of institutions, important personalities, and important events. Its earliest banks date back to just after the Order of St John left the island, followed by Napoleon’s occupying French troops, with Britain then taking the strategically important country under its charge. Thereafter, the island’s banking history can be chronologically structured into three periods: roughly 1809-80s, 1880s-1965, and then from 1965 to date.
