Financial services stakeholders should club together to form a task force to tackle the damaging effects of the Malta Files, the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry said today. 

"Time is of the essence. Every minute is valuable and all stakeholders need to come together immediately to address this very serious issue," the Chamber said in a statement. 

The Malta Files is a joint investigative effort by a number of media outlets across Europe which are looking into Malta's taxation system. It is the result of a leak of documents from a local financial services practitioner. 

Both Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and PN leader Simon Busuttil have insisted the expose has not revealed anything illegal about Malta's taxation system and that the information published was already publicly available through the MFSA's register of companies.

Malta's system taxes companies at a 35 per cent rate but allows foreign shareholders to claim an 85 per cent rebate on taxes paid as part of their dividend. The system means companies can bring their tax liability to as low as five per cent. 

In its statement, the Chamber welcomed both political leaders' defence of the sector and said the Malta Files had "triggered a series of attacks on the integrity of the country's fiscal structures and financial services industry" that endangered the country's entire economy. 

It offered the Chamber's experience to bring stakeholders together to produce a united front on the matter.