Rick Hunkin has officially handed over his duties as Bank of Valletta plc (BOV) CEO to Kenneth Farrugia, whose appointment has been granted regulatory approval on Thursday.

Mr Hunkin has also relinquished his position as Executive Director, with Mr Farrugia also taking up this role.

BOV’s Board thanked Mr Hunkin for his service over the past three years, “especially for the governance and transformation improvements achieved in extraordinarily difficult circumstances,” before wishing him every success in his future endeavours.

Mr Hunkin became the first BOV CEO to be appointed from outside the bank’s ranks in 2020, bringing his extensive experience in international, retail, and the corporate banking sector to BOV.

Mr Farrugia was announced as his replacement in September, taking up the new role after more than 37 years at the bank, during which time he served in various positions. Prior to his new position, he served as Chief Retail Banking Officer for over eight years.

New BOV CEO and Executive Director Kenneth Farrugia

Commenting on his official appointment, Mr Farrugia said he is looking forward to working alongside BOV's Board, Executive Team and its employees in "pursuing our strategy aimed at delivering the highest standards of service to our esteemed customers".

"We will be working together to deliver a sustainable, compliant and secure bank, focusing on our people, our operations, as well as our risk and governance infrastructure, while at the same time accelerating the digital transition to achieve service excellence across our customer service touchpoints, to the benefit of all our stakeholders embedding Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations in the process," he added.

Mr Farrugia is a Harvard Business School graduate from its General Management Programme in Organisational Leadership, and throughout his time at BOV he has become particularly skilled in asset management and investments.