Minister Evarist Bartolo this evening in Parliament said that he has no faith in MFSA Chairman Joe Bannister.

He referred to the Panama scandal and said that there's a lot of hypocrisy regarding this issue.

"Does it make sense that an MFSA Chairman is directly involved with a company in the Cayman Islands which is also considered as a tax haven? Isn't this causing a conflict of interest?"

Mr Bartolo, who this morning did not hold back from declaring that if it was him involved instead of Minister Mizzi, he would have resigned, said that the MFSA is the authority which monitors very important fiscal practices. 

The Minister also proposed that it should become illegal for anyone in Malta to set up companies for financial purposes in countries where there were no arrangements for the automatic exchange of information.

He said that Mossack Fonseca is only one of the four companies which provide these services. "This is only the tip of the iceberg."

"On Monday I will be voting against the no confidence vote. But we need to fix things up. Let this scandal be an experience by which we learn on how to deal with such issues."

He added that those who have to shoulder responsibility should do so, because it's the public that will suffer.

Mr Bartolo said that locally, we are using this matter for partisan politics.

"It's hypocritical to accuse those that create an offshore fund, and in the meantime, the PN comes up with a loan scheme which enables a person to hide money."

"It's wrong to hide money abroad, but also to hide money in Malta," he added.

"Where is the MFSA? How come it is not investigating the scheme presented by PN?"

He said that if the PN wants to take things seriously, the Opposition should have issued a detailed prospectus rather than a couple of pages of information.

He reminded Parliament that PN has a huge debt.

Earlier, Nationalist MP Kristy Debono said that the Opposition will be voting in favour of the amendments in the Financial Services Law.

The PN Spokesperson for Finance said that while speaking about financial services, one cannot ignore the biggest scandal which this country is facing, referring to the Panama Papers.

"The elephant in the room became a dinosaur, but the government is still idle in front of this crises."

Debono Referred to what PL MEP Alfred Sant and Minister Evarist Bartolo said as they "sounded the alarms bells" on this scandal and on how the Minister involved should proceed.

She reminded the government that the financial sector employs 9,000 people in Malta.

"The Prime Minister knows what he should do, but the longer he takes, the more damage is being done. We are exposing our country to a huge reputational risk. We need a concrete and bold decision."

"What is stopping your government from taking concrete action now?" she insisted.