Starting today regulations are in effect to standardize the issuance and circulation of bank checks.
From a statement issued by the National Bank of Panama:
We wish inform you that as of February 1, 2016, agreements No. 001-2014 of 18 March 2014 and No 010-2014 of October 14, 2014, issued by the Superintendency of Banks of Panama are in effect, which establishes standardization of check designs in Panama, with the introduction of new features that enable more security in these transactions. In addition security features for fraud detection are integrated.
Although it was expected to happen this year, the legislation that standardizes the issuance and circulation of checks will enter into force in February 2016.
The Superintendency of Banks in Panama, working in conjunction with the rules on banking union, announced that the new rules will come into effect in February 2016, and the checks that have been issued before this will have a period of 18 months after the entry into force of the new standard to be taken out of circulation.
A proposal has been made for the region to standardize the criteria for patenting so that it has the same validity and is treated in the same way in each of the Central American countries.
Meeting in Panama, patent experts and government representatives reviewed the Manual for Processing Patent Applications, with the aim of unifying the various laws on registrations in order to facilitate the work of companies that have to deal with different rules, times and procedures to register their patents in countries in Central America.
The National Stock Exchange will implement a system of mass placement of securities in order to encourage the registration of emissions from private companies and the arrival of more investors.
The strategy will focus on standardizing the securities that are issued in the primary market so that they can then be traded in the secondary market and in this way give them greater marketability and encourage the participation of more investors.
The Superintendency of Banks is preparing regulatory changes in order to reduce the time it takes to clear a check from three days to just one.
The rules that the regulator has proposed in Agreement 1-2014, issued in March, aims to improve safety and modernize the means of payment of the country, punctually, standardizing checks circulating in the Panamanian financial center.