iGaming Payment Solutions
Bank of Valletta Review
Is It the Right Bank for Your iGaming Business?
The only bank in this section: a systemically important Maltese credit institution that treats online gambling as a restricted category, open to gaming companies after enhanced due diligence and closed to the players themselves.
MaltaQuick Info
- Type
- Bank
- Class
- Own license
- Regulator
- Malta Financial Services Authority
- License
- BOV
- HQ
- Malta
- Pricing
- Published
Our Verdict: Should You Bank With Bank of Valletta?
Final assessment for iGaming operators, studios and affiliates
Tier 2: register-verified and gambling stated on its own site
Summary
Bank of Valletta is a licensed credit institution under MFSA supervision since July 1995 and a Significant Institution under direct ECB supervision since November 2014, listed on the Malta Stock Exchange since 1992 with the Government of Malta holding 25% and UniCredit 5.21%. For a gambling business that means a real bank deposit covered by the Maltese Depositor Compensation Scheme, a Maltese IBAN, SEPA and SWIFT, FX, corporate cards and merchant acquiring through BOV Accept. Online gaming and betting sit on the restricted list, not the prohibited one: BOV Accept admits the category when the bank explicitly authorises the merchant, the 2024 Pillar 3 disclosure requires enhanced due diligence for specific gaming companies while banning relationships with professional poker players or gambling individuals, and the client application form offers Gambling / Betting as a business category. The bank names no gaming client, publishes no gaming tariff, sets acquiring reserves by risk level, and carries a EUR 2.6 million FIAU penalty from December 2021 for beneficial-ownership failures on 2,442 corporate customers. Its 1.8 Trustpilot score comes from retail customers and says nothing about corporate service.
Strongest Point
Institution grade. Nothing else in this section is a bank. Deposits sit under the Maltese Depositor Compensation Scheme instead of an EMI segregation promise, the IBAN and the cards are the bank's own, and acquiring runs in-house through BOV Accept with card acceptance terms that carry supplemental conditions for special merchant categories and define a gambling transaction, which is the paperwork of a bank that processes the category. BOV also shows up where the Maltese gaming industry shows up, on the Make it in Malta stand with the MGA and GamingMalta at ICE Barcelona in January 2026.
Key Limitation
Access. Online gambling is restricted, so an application goes through enhanced due diligence and the bank decides case by case, with no published criteria, no gaming tariff, and acquiring reserves set by the bank's view of the business risk. The 2021 FIAU penalty for beneficial-ownership reporting is four years old, with no regulator action in the two years since, and it tells an applicant what the bank now checks hardest: who owns the company. There is practical friction as well, since bov.com sits behind a Cloudflare configuration that blocks many networks outside the EU, so an operator outside Europe may not even reach the forms. Trustpilot's 1.8 on 16 reviews reflects retail banking complaints and is not a read on corporate accounts.
Recommendation
Apply to Bank of Valletta if you run a Malta-licensed operation and want your operating account and acquiring at a bank rather than an EMI, and prepare the beneficial-ownership file down to the last natural person before you start, because that is where the bank was fined and that is where it will look. Expect a case-by-case decision after enhanced due diligence, budget for acquiring reserves tied to your risk grade, and keep an EMI from this section as the fallback account while the application runs. If you are outside the EU, have someone in Malta pull the forms, since the website may not load from your network.
Pros
- A licensed credit institution, MFSA-supervised since 1995 and an ECB Significant Institution since 2014; the only bank in this section
- Deposits covered by the Maltese Depositor Compensation Scheme
- Online gambling is a restricted category, not a prohibited one, with a Gambling / Betting box on the client application form
- Full product: Maltese IBAN, SEPA, SWIFT, FX, corporate cards and BOV Accept acquiring
- Present with the MGA and GamingMalta at ICE Barcelona 2026
Cons
- Gaming clients accepted case by case after enhanced due diligence, with no published criteria
- FIAU penalty of EUR 2.6 million in December 2021 for beneficial-ownership reporting on 2,442 corporate customers
- No gaming tariff; acquiring reserves set by the bank's risk grading
- No named gaming clients
- Relationships with professional poker players or gambling individuals are prohibited
- Website blocks many non-EU networks
Ready to open the conversation with Bank of Valletta?
On Record
1 enforcement or dispute item an operator should read before opening an account
- Dec 17, 2021. FIAU administrative penalty of EUR 2.6 million for beneficial-ownership reporting failures covering 2,442 corporate customers source
Gambling Policy, in the Provider's Own Words
What the company itself says about serving iGaming, and how we read it
“Operations of gaming or betting establishments that occur on the internet”
Our reading
Restricted category, accepted case by case after enhanced due diligence, not prohibited. The 2024 Pillar 3 disclosure states enhanced due diligence for specific gaming companies while relationships with professional poker players or gambling individuals are prohibited; the client application form carries a Gambling / Betting business category.
Licenses named as accepted
Client types named
License, Read in the Register
Entity, license type and number as the regulator prints them, with the date we read the entry
| Regulator | Entity | Type · number | Status | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malta Financial Services Authority | BANK OF VALLETTA P.L.C. | Bank · BOV | Credit Institutions, Licence Authorised; ECB Significant Institution since 2014 (since Jul 14, 1995) | Sep 1, 2026, register page |
- Legal entity
- Bank of Valletta p.l.c., C 2833
- Headquarters
- Malta
- Founded
- 1974
- Class
- Own license
Safeguarding of client money
Deposits are covered by the Maltese Depositor Compensation Scheme. Bank of Valletta is a credit institution, so a client balance is a bank deposit rather than safeguarded e-money.
The Account
What the operator actually gets on the account, and what it costs to open
| Feature | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|
| IBAN in your company's name | Available | Dedicated account, not a pooled reference |
| SEPA | Available | SEPA |
| SEPA Instant | Not available | Not stated by the provider |
| SWIFT | Available | Maltese EUR IBAN with FX; other account currencies not stated |
| Cards | Available | Corporate cards on the account |
| API | Not available | Dashboard only |
| Bulk payouts | Not available | Not stated by the provider |
| Crypto or stablecoins | Not available | None on the account |
| Card acquiring as well | Available | Hybrid: the cashier side is rated in the PSP catalog, not here |
Onboarding
- Non-EU companies
- Not stated
- Time to open
- Not stated
- Licenses named
- Not stated
Pricing, published
General tariff sheets are published; there is no gaming-specific tariff, and BOV Accept acquiring reserves depend on the bank's assessment of the business risk level.
Named Clients and Reputation
Who vouches for the provider on the record, and what its own customers say
Named iGaming clients
None named on a first-party source. Every operator using this provider does so without a public reference.
Reputation
16 reviews, 94% one-star, read Sep 1, 2026.
Not to be confused with: Valletta Pay (VallettaPay Limited, Liverpool) is a separate company with no connection to the bank.
Frequently Asked Questions
3 questions about Bank of Valletta
Case by case. Online gaming and betting are on BOV's restricted list, not the prohibited one, so the bank can authorise a merchant explicitly and does so after enhanced due diligence. Companies get that review; professional poker players and gambling individuals as customers are prohibited outright.
It is a bank, so your balance is a deposit protected by the Maltese Depositor Compensation Scheme at an institution supervised directly by the ECB, which no EMI in this section can offer. The trade-off is access: you have to pass enhanced due diligence first, and the bank was fined EUR 2.6 million in 2021 for gaps in its own beneficial-ownership checks, so expect those checks to be thorough now.
Only if the bank explicitly authorises it in the merchant agreement, since online gaming and betting sit in the restricted category. Reserves depend on the bank's view of your business risk level, and there is no published gaming rate. Valletta Pay in Liverpool is a different company with no connection to the bank.