Panama Banks: Offshore Banking With Privacy Protection
Posted on May 13, 2008
Filed Under Legal |
One of the least well known pearls of the Latin American part of the world is the city of Panama. Currently experiencing a construction boom that has over 450 skyscrapers being built or in the process of acquiring permits to build. Panama has long attracted international shipping companies due to the Panama canal and Colon free trade zone but more and more investors and businessmen are finding out about offshore banking and company formation in Panama and realizing they have some of the best advantages available in the world today to protect privacy.
Panama’s offshore banking success story can be attributed to the fact that the United States removed Panama from the uncooperative tax haven list after Panama overhauled it’s banking standards and regulation to help the international community root out serious criminals such as drug traffickers.
Panama has also become an industry leader in the banking and financial sectors in that they have announced their support of the FATF and OECD movements. Implementation of measures to combat money laundering and terrorist funding activities occurred due to these measures .
Just as the practice occurs in the United States, it has become common practice in Panama to put tighter controls on banks so that they now are reporting all deposits and withdrawals in amounts exceeding $10,000. This control was also implemented as a direct result of the FATF and OECD movements as well. Panama has been removed from the non-cooperative tax haven list and is reaping the rewards.
Panama became very aware that it had to start “cleaning up its image” several years ago, and as a result, they went on a mission to enhance that image and implement the improvements necessary to make them a major player in the offshore banking market. Knowing your customers more thoroughly includes tighter reference requirements as well as fund origination.
Panama has climbed to the top of the offshore banking world and is arguably right behind Switzerland in popularity now. Switzerland gets all the spotlight and Panama is just fine with that. Panama continues to enforce it’s banking secrecy laws with vigor as they know their international reputation depends on it.
Banking in Panama provides the offshore banking client of all of these aspects whether it is for their offshore corporation or for personal accounts as well. Additionally, the different government agencies have become very active in the fight against financing organized crime and terrorist activities, as well as the prevention of money laundering for these purposes. This also benefits the offshore clients in knowing that their transactions will always be safe and secure since Panama is known to cooperate with authorities for major crimes.
Panama’s banks and government are doing everything in their power to maintain the good reputation they have built since billions of dollars and over 40,000 Panamanian jobs in the banking industry are at stake. They are not going to break their own rules to deal with a criminal if they can avoid it and happily scrutinize customers more closely when setting up bank accounts.
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