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..
If you have more questions about Panama Banking please contact us.
