Of the six foreign authorities that are investingating 1MDB, only Switzerland has formally contacted Malaysia asking for cooperation.

This is according to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri in a parliamentary written reply yesterday.

"At present, the government of Malaysia has only received one official assistance request to cooperate with the Switzerland government in the investigation involving 1MDB," Nancy said in reply to Sim Tze Tzin (PKR-Bayan Baru).

Sim had asked the government to reveal the number of foreign authorities that are investigating 1MDB.

He also asked how many of them have requested cooperation from the government.

Besides Switzerland, Singapore, United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Australia have been reported to be investigating the Finance Ministry sovereign fund.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma), which is responsible for Switzerland's financial regulations, has described the Malaysia's 1MDB and Brazil Petrobras scandals as "clear cases of corruption".

Finma chief executive officer Mark Branson was referring to money from the two entities which had passed through the Swiss financial system.

He called 1MDB and Petrobras prime examples of money laundering risks that Switzerland is facing.

Branson then went on to outline what he said were troubling aspects to both cases.

"These are not events from years ago – the money was still being accepted until quite recently. We are not talking about legacy issues.

"From what it looks like, we are not dealing here with shades of grey. The evidence points to clear cases of corruption.

"The extent of the cases and the sums involved are vast. We are talking about cash flows amounting to several billion US dollars, with individual transactions running into hundreds of millions.

"Those are significant sums of money for developing nations like Malaysia and Brazil, in which the average monthly income is less than US$1,000," he told the Finma Annual Conference 2016 in Berne, Switzerland on April 7.