Put your hands together, please, for the Republic of Malta!

Despite being the 11th smallest country in the world (just 121 square miles in size), Malta has since 2002 had its own "Malta Financial Services Authority." The MFSA announced this week in its Annual Report for 2010 that it is "currently investigating the trading activities of two individuals who as insiders may have traded on the basis of potentially price sensitive information relating to the issuer." By my math, this means that given Malta's population of 400,000, the MFSA has 1/200,000th of the nation under the microscope in this one inquiry. Let's see the U.S. SEC try to match that!

The MFSA added that it is presently conducting "a number" of ongoing reviews of possible cases of market manipulation and insider dealing. So to all of my Maltese readers out there who thought they could mess around on the Malta Stock Exchange, I say think again--the MFSA is watching!

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