Maltese financial services practitioners operate within a legal and regulatory framework of the highest standards, the Institute of Financial Services Practitioners said today.

The statement was published following the publication of the “Malta Files” which described Malta as a haven for tax evasion.

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The institute said that while taxation policy remained a matter for each member state to determine in the exercise of its sovereignty, Malta had pro-actively ensured that its tax rules continued to be compliant with applicable EU legal principles.

Its laws applied transparently to all Maltese incorporated companies, irrespective of who their shareholders were. Consequently, referring to Malta as an “offshore jurisdiction” or a “tax haven” was entirely baseless and purely sensationalist, it said.

Malta’s tax system, it said, was neither harmful nor discriminatory, and certainly not secretive.

Much of the information released in the “Malta Files”, it said, was available through the Registry of Companies’ online portal.