Transparency International tweets:

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Germany's justice minister is proposing setting up a national "transparency register'' that would list the real beneficiaries of letter-box companies - but only those set up in Germany itself. 

Heiko Maas's proposal to expand national money-laundering legislation follows the Panama papers leak. German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that 28 German banks used the company's services to set up or administer more than 1,200 shell companies. 

He conceded that German legislation could only apply to companies set up in Germany, which has pushed for tax havens to open up. "Those who are pushing for this at the international level have to have corresponding national rules themselves. I can imagine many countries considering this.'' 

BBC Monitoring

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A Pakistani paper says it is ironic that while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (pictured) urges inward foreign investment his family appears to invest their wealth elsewhere.

"While the ruling Sharifs are every other day heard giving sermons to overseas Pakistanis as well as foreign entrepreneurs to invest their money in Pakistan, ironically their own wealth is off limits for use in their own country’s development and progress," comments the Daily Times after the naming of Mr Sharif's children in the Panama papers.

Mr Sharif's family is now under scrutiny after the Panama leaks, according to the Pakistani Urdu-language paper Nawa-i-Waqt, while the English-language daily Dawn say that "when the Sharif family denies it has done anything illegal, what should be asked of them is, for every rupee of tax avoidance - who is picking up the cost?"

The opposition has called for a thorough investigation following the leaks, according to The Nation.

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The European Union must take action to ensure offshore companies cannot be used for money laundering and tax evasion, the Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann says. "Work is urgently needed in unison with the European Union."

Austria would take part in international discussions on how to increase data exchange and data security, he says. 

"We need to review all current cases and everything that's possibly still to come," Mr Faymann says in regard to investigations into whether two Austrian banks followed rules aimed at preventing money laundering.   

BBC Monitoring

Newspapers in Israel have been covering the Panama papers. Yossi Dahan writes in the centrist, mass circulation daily Yediot Aharonot:   

Our colleagues at BBC Trending, external note that some Panamanians are taking to social media to express their annoyance about their country being so strongly linked with global corruption due to the #PanamaPapers hashtag.

Some are trying to get the rival #MossackFonsecaPapers trending as an alternative.

Others think it’s all a plot to discredit Panama – even though the country’s attorney-general is now investigating – or are pointing out that other countries have larger offshore banking empires.

Iceland's prime minister has been forced to resign after documents appear to reveal he and his wife concealed millions of dollars worth of investments in an offshore company.

Assistant political editor Norman Smith tweets:

Channel 4 News political correspondent Michael Crick tweets:

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More from the Financial Times, external interview with Ramon Fonseca, one of the founding partners of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, who seems pretty upbeat despite his firm being the source of one of the largest data leaks in history.

He calls coverage of the financial affairs of his clients a "witch hunt", adding: "I guarantee there is more dirty money in New York and London and Miami than in Panama."

The FT notes that Mr Fonseca resigned as an adviser to Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela last month after Mossack Fonseca was caught up in Brazil’s political corruption scandal.

Dilma Rousseff, the embattled Brazilian leader, might be breathing a small sigh of relief that the Panama papers has deflected some attention from her woes - for a day or two at least.  

BBC Monitoring

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In Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko is getting a bad press following revelations that he set up a secret offshore company in the British Virgin Islands.

"There is no crime in creating an offshore company. However the constitutional regulation banning the president from doing business was violated," MP Viktor Chumak is quoted as saying in KP v Ukraine, a Ukrainian edition of the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Mr Poroshenko tweeted: "Having become a President, I'm not participating in management of my assets, having delegated this responsibility to consulting&law firms"

Vesti, a pro-opposition daily, is calling the Panama Papers "Wikileaks 2.0", and political analyst Ruslan Bortnyk says: "The president has already been harmed, his ratings will drop."

Segodnya, an opposition-leaning daily, says that in the mind of the public ''offshore has long become a swear word and therefore politicians' connection with offshore companies is a risk and a blow to their reputation".

The daily Den carries a commentary saying ''Poroshenko clearly acted as a businessman rather than the president".

The Panama papers has perhaps had the biggest impact thus far in Iceland. Thousands of people have protested to call for the resignation of prime minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson after details about a company Wintris, which he owned with his wife, were revealed. He did not declare an interest in Wintris when entering parliament in 2009.  

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Image source, Reuters

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David Cameron does not hold any shares in Blairmore Holdings, the Panamanian company his late father Ian (pictured with his wife Mary) helped set up in 1982, Downing Street sources have told the BBC.

However, the sources are not commenting on whether other members of the Cameron family own shares in the offshore firm.

Ian Cameron, the prime minister's late father, did not become a director of Blairmore until 1989. A 2006 prospectus said he "was instrumental in the formation of company in the early 1980s".

In July 1998, the fund was valued at nearly $20m.

Business correspondent Joe Lynam tweets:

Not fluent in French? According to Le Monde, the aim of the system, which sent funds to Hong Kong, Singapore, the British Virgin Islands and Panama, was "to get money out of France, through shell companies and false invoices, to evade French anti-money-laundering authorities".

David Cameron should consider imposing "direct rule" on the UK's overseas territories and dependencies if they do not comply with tax law, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says.

Istanbul-based journalist Laura Pitel tweets:

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Banned UEFA president Michel Platini's Panamanian bank account was declared to the authorities in Switzerland, where he lives, his lawyer said in an interview published by French newspaper Le Figaro on Tuesday. 

"Holding bank accounts through companies is not illegal as long as they are declared, which was the case here," the lawyer said. 

The European football boss and former French international is appealing against a six-year ban from taking part in international football activity. The ban is related to a payment of 2 million Swiss francs made to Mr Platini in 2011 and was imposed by Fifa, world football's governing body.

Business correspondent Joe Lynam tweets:

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

More from former Attorney-General Dominic Grieve on Today. Restricting the autonomy of overseas territories to manage their own financial affairs will simply prompt the rich to switch to other tax havens with fewer regulations, he argues.

“Tax is a competitive environment and if people wish to relocate to an overseas location... because they see that there are tax advantages by locating their companies there that’s a legitimate thing,” Mr Grieve says.

“There is a clear distinction between managing your tax affairs so as to minimise tax lawfully and tax evasion or for that matter allowing your banking system or financial sector to facilitate crime or terrorism.”

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Dominic Grieve, the former Attorney-General, tells Today the government could intervene in the self-government of its overseas dependencies but adds: “It’s a bit of a nuclear option”.

He says the autonomy of the UK’s overseas territories should be respected in the same way as Scotland's devolved administration: ”As long as they are carrying out their governance properly there would not be proper grounds to intervene.” 

The UK government is “there ultimately to be responsible for their international relations and their defence in most cases”, Mr Grieve adds.