Panama
Banking
With its glistening
skyscrapers, the center of modern Panama
City resembles a miniature Manhattan.
Panama has the most modern and successful international banking
center in Latin America, with more than 85 banks from 35
countries. Panama’s new banking law (Decree No. 9) meets the
standards of leading financial centers around the world for
transparency and regulation.
Moreover, Panama has turned into one of the leading countries
supporting the FATF and OECD movement to implement measures in
international financial centers to cope with capital laundering
and terrorist financial activities. Tighter controls have been put
on banks to report all deposits and withdrawals of more than
$10,000, as identically done in the United States.
The awareness that Panama has to clean up its image is also making
banking institutions more thorough about checking the credentials of new
customers. The “know your customer” policy includes tighter
reference requirements and origin of funds. Nevertheless, banking
secrecy continues in place.
In addition, Panama is one of the most secure international
offshore centers in the world. The Panama Stock Exchange is one of
the fastest-growing in the region.
In the financial industry, diverse investment opportunities exist
in banking, investment capital financing, insurance and
re-insurance.
The Republic of Panama maintains a firm commitment to fight and
maintain a proactive and efficient role against money laundering
and the financing of terrorism and organized crime through its
different governmental bodies and in close cooperation with other
jurisdictions.
Panama's banking system has effectively achieved the following,
among others factors:
International Standards
International cooperation
Modern legislation
Competitive advantages
As a necessary
complement of the above, important legislation has been passed by
the Panama Legislative Assembly and sanctioned by the President
and resulted in relevant Cabinet Decrees being issued by the
Executive power.
Banks and Financial
Institutions in Panama:
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