MFSA Finds Marketing Compliance Weaknesses Across Insurance & Investment Firms

Key Takeaways

• MFSA Identifies Marketing Governance Weaknesses: The review found shortcomings in marketing policies, procedures, oversight arrangements and post-publication monitoring across parts of Malta's insurance and investment sectors.
• Disclosure Practices Under Scrutiny: Regulators identified instances where information relating to risks, regulatory status and external website links was not sufficiently prominent or comprehensive.
• Record-Keeping Remains a Compliance Challenge: The Authority found deficiencies in how some firms documented and retained evidence of marketing reviews, approvals and monitoring activities.
• Strong Compliance Practices Highlighted: The MFSA pointed to regular policy reviews, structured monitoring programmes, standardised disclosure templates and formal compliance checklists as examples of good market practice.

Deep Dive

Marketing disclosures are often treated as the final step in a product launch. A disclaimer is added, compliance signs off, the campaign goes live, and attention moves elsewhere. The Malta Financial Services Authority's latest supervisory review suggests that approach remains more common than regulators would like.

The regulator has published the findings of a 2025 review of marketing communications across Malta's insurance and investment sectors, identifying weaknesses in governance, monitoring, disclosures and record-keeping while also highlighting examples of stronger compliance practices already in use across the market. The exercise formed part of the MFSA's Outcomes-Based Supervision framework, which focuses less on whether firms can demonstrate that a process exists and more on whether that process produces the outcome regulators are seeking.

In this case, the question was straightforward: are consumers and investors receiving marketing communications that are fair, clear and not misleading? The answer, at least across part of the market, was not always.

Where Firms Fell Short

The review identified several recurring weaknesses. Some firms lacked sufficiently documented marketing policies and procedures. Others were unable to demonstrate robust monitoring once communications had been published.

Record-keeping also emerged as a concern. While marketing materials are often highly visible to customers, the internal evidence showing how those materials were reviewed, approved and monitored can be far less visible. The Authority found deficiencies in those records across parts of the sector.

Disclosure practices attracted particular attention. According to the MFSA, some marketing communications did not provide sufficiently prominent or comprehensive information regarding product risks, regulatory status or links directing consumers to external websites. The regulator also stressed the importance of keeping communications current and ensuring they are directed toward the appropriate audience.

These findings point to a familiar compliance problem. The issue is not necessarily whether firms understand the rules governing marketing communications. It is whether the controls surrounding those communications are operating consistently enough to produce reliable outcomes.

What Good Practice Looks Like

The review was not exclusively focused on shortcomings. The MFSA highlighted several practices that it considers effective, including regular reviews of marketing policies, structured compliance monitoring programmes, standardised disclosure templates and the use of formal compliance checklists before publication.

The Authority also pointed to enhanced oversight arrangements designed to ensure marketing communications remain transparent, balanced and aligned with regulatory expectations.

Those examples matter because they reveal what supervisors increasingly expect from firms. Marketing compliance is no longer viewed as a narrow review exercise conducted immediately before publication. Regulators are looking for evidence of governance, monitoring and accountability throughout the lifecycle of a communication.

From Process to Outcomes

The review reflects a broader shift underway in supervision. For years, many regulatory assessments concentrated on whether firms could demonstrate compliance with specific procedural requirements. Outcomes-based supervision starts from a different premise. It asks whether those procedures are actually delivering the result they were designed to achieve.

For marketing communications, that result is consumer understanding. Christopher P. Buttigieg, Chief Officer Supervision at the MFSA, said consumers and investors should be able to rely on marketing communications that are fair, clear and not misleading.

"Through our Outcomes-Based Supervision framework, we continue to engage with industry to strengthen standards, promote transparency and support informed decision-making across Malta's financial services sector," he said.

The Authority has communicated its findings through Dear CEO letters issued to licensed entities, outlining both the shortcomings identified during the review and the improvements expected from firms.

The exercise is not ending with the publication of the findings. The MFSA said it will continue engaging with firms as part of its three-year supervisory cycle and will assess whether the compliance outcomes it expects are being achieved. That follow-up may ultimately matter more than the findings themselves. Reviews such as this are rarely about a single marketing campaign or a particular disclosure. They are attempts to answer a larger question: whether compliance controls work when customers actually encounter them.

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