'Switzerland can't be more moral than everyone else'

Switzerland doesn't need to boost financial regulations in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations, finance minister Ueli Maurer told Swiss tabloid Blick on Friday, defending the right of the super rich to park their money offshore.

"Calls for more regulation are always popular. But you have to be careful. The current [regulatory] framework is okay,” Maurer told Blick.

"We can't bring everything under state control," said the minister with the nationalist Swiss People’s Party.

He told the paper: “When it comes to media hype, you have to first sit back and take a deep breath. Offshore firms are not illegal."

“You have to create these [offshore] possibilities. Rich people pay a lot more tax than me. I am not rich and without the rich I would have to pay a lot more tax,” he added.

“The Swiss regulatory structure is strong enough. Anyone with criminal energy can find a loophole somehow.”

“We can’t be more moral than everyone else in the world,” said the finance minister, defending the country’s position.

Asked about the appearance of the new Fifa president - Swiss-Italian Gianni Infantino - in the Panama Papers, Maurer said this was not a political matter. Instead it was an issue for Fifa and Swiss prosecutors.

The comments from the Swiss finance minister come after a massive leak of information from a Panama-based law firm showed possible wrongdoing in how the world's rich use offshore company structures to park their cash.

Italy, France, Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand have started investigations following the leak of some 11.5 million documents.

The Lockal.ch