The placement of Panamanian securities through the Bloomberg platform will mean greater exposure to global investors and consequently increased demand.
It is expected that the Comptroller General's Office will endorse, no later than December, a contract to operate in the Bloomberg platform. From that moment the Panama Stock Exchange will no longer be used to issue Panamanian Government securities.
In the first three months of the year $1.350 million worth of securities were traded, up from $1.057 million traded in the same period in 2013.
Increased purchases of securities in the first quarter of 2014 "were made by BG Valores ($230.09 million), Prival Securities ($228.88 million), Banco Nacional de Panama ($195.62 million), MMG Bank Corporation ($142 55 million) and Citivalores ($126.06 million) ...
On December 4th Fitch Ratings will hold a conference entitled 'Challenges and Opportunities for Structured Finance and Infrastructure in Central America and the Caribbean.'
Securitization of Assets, an Option for Capital Markets in the Region, is one of the subjects to be discussed in the event's agenda. Participants will include Marielena Garcia, SVP of Investment Banking at MMG Bank Corp, Alberto Gutierrez, president of Titularizadora Colombiana, John Rauschkolb, General Manager La Hipotecaria and Diego Torres, vice general manager of BHD Valores Puesto de Bolsa.
Volume in the Panama Stock Exchange is being driven by the fact that properly registered shares and bonds do not pay income tax.
Capital.com.pa reports that "the stock market in Panama traded $512.2 million in January 2013, a figure which much higher than that negotiated in the months of January in the last seven years, with the exception of 2011 ".
The cumulative transactions in Panamanian brokerage houses in the first 8 months of 2012 totalled $65.08 billion.
Capital.com reported: "According to the latest statistics published by the Panama Securities Superintendency (SMV), by August 2012, Interbolsa had the most transactions with a total of $18.346 billion, followed by SFC Investment with $2.369 billion, the National Bank of Panama with $1.337 billion and MMG Bank Corporation with $1.33 billion."
With a secondary market with little dynamism, competition for customers is increasing, with operators opting for different strategies.
Jorge Velez, manager of Interbolsa Panama, Santiago Fernandez, president of SFC Investment Company, and Arthur Mirando, vice president of Thales Securites, analyze the last year’s results of their respective companies, the stock market behavior, and strategies that they have adopted in order to grow.