HSBC Malta staff stage sit-in strike as BBVA takeover threatens Maltese severance perks

# HSBC Malta staff stage sit-in strike over compensation linked to owner change

Valletta’s Republic Street felt more like a union hall than a banking capital yesterday morning when 200 HSBC Malta employees walked off the job and staged a surprise sit-in inside the 1960s marble-clad lobby of the bank’s flagship branch. By 11 a.m. the revolving doors were locked from within, cardboard signs reading “Malta’s profits, Malta’s people” were taped to the bronze lions, and curious tourists found themselves photographing a very Maltese stand-off instead of the usual selfies with the bronze street lamps.

The flash strike erupted after news broke that the incoming owner, Europe’s third-largest lender Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), has no plans to honour the local compensation formula negotiated in 2019. That deal tops up Maltese workers’ redundancy cheques with an extra week’s salary for every year served—an island-specific perk designed to offset Malta’s sky-high rents and the fact that bank employees rarely own property outright before 40. BBVA, which is buying HSBC’s European retail network for €5.1 billion, intends to apply Spanish statutory minimums instead, slashing potential payouts by up to 40 %.

“BBVA is getting our balance sheet, our loyal customers, even the lions outside,” said Karen Grima, 34, a loans manager who joined straight out of sixth form. “But they think our years of service are worth less because we live on a rock in the middle of the Med. That’s not just unfair—it’s insulting to the Maltese work ethic.”

Inside the branch, the scene felt part festive, part funeral. Someone had wheeled in a pastel-green ħobż biż-żejt trolley usually reserved for office birthdays; next to it, a stack of printed BBVA logos served as makeshift coasters for plastic cups of Kinnie. A saxophonist from the Malta Union of Bank Employees (MUBE) brass band played a mournful rendition of “Għanja Malta,” while elderly customers—many still clutching the yellow HSBC passbooks they’ve held since the days of Mid-Med Bank—shuffled in to voice support.

By lunchtime the crowd spilled onto the steps, forcing police to redirect buses towards Marsa. Tourists asked if it was a festa; locals replied it was “a festa tal-ħdura,” a feast of frustration.

## Cultural significance

In Malta, banks are more than utilities—they’re village squares. HSBC Malta’s 28 branches double as post offices, lottery sellers and informal meeting spots where retirees debate Serie A over instant coffee. When the UK giant bought Mid-Med in 1999, parents joked that “il-bank tat-tifel” (the boy’s bank) had become “il-bank tal-Ingliż.” Now the prospect of Spanish ownership stirs deeper anxieties about identity in a nation that spent 165 years under British rule only to see its flagship brands serially traded by foreign giants.

“Every time the flag changes, we’re told it’s business as usual,” said Professor Marie Briguglio, an economist at the University of Malta. “But Maltese workers measure security in years, not share price. Removing the severity premium feels like removing a safety net woven into our collective memory of emigration and economic volatility.”

## Community impact

The strike’s timing is delicate. Malta’s economy is cooling after a post-COVID boom; construction cranes still dot the skyline but new permits are down 18 %. HSBC Malta, the island’s second-largest lender, holds 28 % of all mortgages. Staff fear BBVA will offshore back-office roles to Valencia or trim the 1,100-strong workforce once EU merger rules allow rationalisation next year.

By 4 p.m. MUBE and BBVA agreed to enter mediation chaired by Malta’s Employment & Training Corporation. Workers left singing “L-Innu Malti,” handing out leaflets in Maltese, English and Spanish that read: “Nuestros derechos no son negociables.”

Whether BBVA budges remains to be seen. What’s clear is that Malta’s smallest bank strike in decades has become its most symbolic, reminding foreign investors that on an island where everyone knows your nanna, spreadsheets alone don’t balance the books.