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BNF Bank spent more than €1 million stabilising services after a troubled core-system upgrade in late March that left customers locked out of accounts, unable to make payments and scrambling for answers. That is the picture painted by CEO David Power in an exclusive Times of Malta interview, six months after the migration went badly wrong. I have covered this story before — examining the technical failures and the bank’s security posture — and this will likely be my final instalment on the affair. My earlier pieces set out the timeline and the phishing fallout; they remain available for readers who want a deeper chronology and the earlier reporting. What the CEO told the paper David Power described the project as “massive”: BNF replaced “every single system in the bank” and switched card providers from Visa to Mastercard on the same weekend. He says the bank tested the new platform for 18 months and ran more than 3,500 tests before go-live, but that on the day of the launch “one of ...

Introduction In March 2025, Maltese BNF Bank plc (€1.28 billion in assets, 40,000 customers) initiated a critical IT modernization project involving its core banking systems, digital channels, a transition from VISA to Mastercard, and an account number change that also modified customers’ IBANs. However, the execution of this digital transformation took a decidedly calamitous turn. What was intended to be a seamless transition devolved into a textbook example of how a major IT upgrade can go spectacularly wrong. It checked all possible boxes in the worst ways: C-Suite handling of a disastrous outcome, Customer Relations, GDPR compliance, Security, Operations and, ultimately, failure to provide an improved solution for customers. The Plan It began with multiple notifications to customers that the Bank’s ATM network would be unavailable between 29th March 2025 and 1st April 2025. The downtime was planned to minimize customer impact since 30/03 was a Saturday and 31/03 was a Malt...

The sun begins its climb,  Gathering strength,  Pushing on,  Replacing the incumbent. Its golden rays start stretching wide,  Dispelling night’s embrace,  Building energy inside,  To light the world with grace. This daily feat, we hope, Inspires readers of these lines, As soon as they awoke, To have a day that shines. So let this be the start, Of a day both bold and kind, Grant strength within one’s heart, And peace within one’s mind. x

The air, crisp and cool, hung heavy with silence. A particularly heavy mist softened the landscape. Although it had already dawned, the sun was just starting to contribute the yellows and reds to the scene in front of me. The landscape looked like an ethereal dreamscape, the type one sees in dreams after they’ve consumed a heavy meal the evening before. And in the distance, I could see the outline of a church, standing alone in the distance. Its spire appeared insignificant yet, at the same time, noticeable, like a weathered finger pointing heavenward. As I continued my walk, the mist slowly dissipated, but the moment had been recorded. Follow This, That and (Maybe) , the Other :

Mġarr  ( Maltese :  L-Imġarr ), formerly known as  Mgiarro , is a small town in the  Northern Region  of  Malta . Mgarr is a typical rural village situated in an isolated region, west of  Mosta . It is surrounded with rich farmland and vineyards. Many of its 3,629   inhabitants are farmers or are engaged in some sort of agricultural activity. Source:  Wikipedia  

  Mdina   ( Maltese :   L-Imdina ), also known by its titles   Città Vecchia   or   Città Notabile , is a   fortified   city in the   Northern Region   of   Malta   which served as the island's capital from antiquity to the medieval period. The city is still confined within its walls, and has a population of just under 300, but it is contiguous with the town of   Rabat , which takes its name from the Arabic word for suburb, and has a population of over 11,000 (as of March 2014). Source and more: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mdina&oldid=1023585493 Mtarfa   ( Maltese :   L-Imtarfa ) is a small town in the   Northern Region   of   Malta. A chapel dedicated to St. Lucy was first recorded in 1460, and is still standing to date. A clock tower, now a prominent landmark of Mtarfa, was built in 1895. A naval hospital,   RNH Mtarfa, was built during   World War I . A ...

The Laferla Cross (Maltese: is-Salib tal-Għolja) is an early 20th-century religious landmark on the outskirts of Siggiewi, in Malta. It is situated on a hill close to the Chapel of the Annunciation and the Cemetery of Saint Theodore. From Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laferla_Cross ).