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 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. The government maintains a firm commitment to fight and maintain a proactive and efficient role through close cooperation with other jurisdictions. 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. In addition, banking institutions in Panama are more thorough about checking the credentials of new customers. The “know your customer” policy includes tighter reference requirements and origin of funds.

Panama is also 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 reinsurance.

Panama’s banking system has effectively achieved the following, in addition to other factors:

• International Standards
• International cooperation
• Modern legislation
• Competitive advantages

As a necessary complement to the fore-mentioned achievements, important legislation has been passed by the Panama Legislative Assembly and sanctioned by the President to result in relevant Cabinet Decrees issued by the Executive power.