On 7 December 2004, the Malta Financial Services Authority, as the Competent Authority in terms of the Financial Institutions Act 1994 (Cap 376), issued a licence to CommFinance Limited (the Institution), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The Institution is authorised to undertake the business of a financial institution providing the following activities: Lending; Financial Leasing; Guarantees and Commitments and Trading for own account or for account of customers in Money Market Instruments, Foreign Exchange, Financial Futures and Options and Exchange and Interest Rate Instruments.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the first Australian bank to establish a subsidiary in Malta. The Commonwealth Bank Group has a total balance sheet value of AUD305,995 million as at the end of the financial year June 2004 and was originally founded in 1911.