About Riesant

Founded in 1971, Riesant spent its first decades as a Valletta merchant house, arranging finance for shipowners, traders and the founding families whose interests moved through the Grand Harbour. Over time the trade relationships mattered less than the wealth they created, and the firm increasingly devoted itself to the stewardship of that wealth on behalf of a small number of families.

As Malta joined the European Union in 2004 and adopted the euro in 2008, we reorganised as a fully licensed credit institution, formalising under regulation the private banking we had long practised. The repositioning changed our legal form, not our character: the families we served in the 1970s are, in many cases, the grandchildren we advise now.

We hold to stewardship over salesmanship. Our advisers are not rewarded for transactions, and we would rather counsel a client to do nothing than to do something that does not serve them. The measure of our work is whether wealth is preserved and passed on intact, not the activity it generates.

Discretion and independence of advice are the other two pillars. Client affairs are kept private as a matter of principle and of law, and our recommendations are formed in the client's interest alone, free from the pressure to distribute particular products. Those commitments are easier to keep because we remain privately held and modest in scale.

Malta is an unusually well-suited home for a private bank. It is a member of the European Union and of the euro area, so clients are served within the single market and a single currency, with passporting access across the EU and EEA. English is an official language, and the legal system blends civil-law foundations with common-law influence, including a developed body of trust and foundation law that supports succession and estate planning.

From Valletta and Sliema we sit at a natural meeting point between European, North African and Levantine markets, with the time zone, language and institutions to act as a bridge between them. For families whose lives and assets span more than one jurisdiction, that combination of EU membership and Mediterranean reach is a practical advantage rather than a slogan.

We regard the responsible stewardship of capital as inseparable from its preservation. Environmental, social and governance factors are considered as part of investment risk and quality rather than treated as a separate marketing exercise, and clients who wish to apply specific values-based screens to their portfolios are accommodated through tailored mandates.

Our own conduct is held to the same standard. The bank is conservatively run, with a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 19.4%, and deposits are protected up to €100,000 under the Depositor Compensation Scheme. We aim to be a stable, long-term custodian, which means declining business that does not fit our risk appetite or our values.

Riesant Bank plc is authorised and supervised by the Malta Financial Services Authority under the Banking Act (Cap. 371) and the Investment Services Act (Cap. 370), and operates within the framework of MiFID II, the GDPR and EU anti-money-laundering law. The bank is governed by a board of directors with a majority of non-executive members, supported by Audit, Risk, Remuneration and Nomination committees.

Day-to-day risk and conduct are overseen by independent risk and compliance functions reporting into the board, including a dedicated Money Laundering Reporting Officer. This structure separates the management of the business from the control of its risks, and gives clients the assurance that the bank is run prudently and within the letter of its regulatory obligations.