From May 2019, foreign customers will have to declare to local system banks that their funds meet their country's tax requirements.
The Superintendence of Banks of Panama (SBP) approved Agreement 02-2019, which implements the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, which consists of expanding the required due diligence measures of banks with their customers.
...and I will tell you who you are. In their quest to reduce exposure to risk, banking correspondents have started to restrict the services they provide to gambling companies, remittance companies, and brokerage firms that are not related to banking groups in the region.
In order to reduce risk exposure, some international banks with correspondents in Panama and other countries in the region are failing to open accounts for or provide services for companies whose income comes from activities such as remittances and gambling.The banks' argument is that they are more likely to be used for money laundering. Even non-banking brokerage firms claim to have difficulty offering their customers products and services,"... since banks wont open accounts in which customers can deposit their funds and receive a return on their investment."
Increased operating costs because of risk controls imposed by the US have led to correspondent banks avoiding working with small banks.
Maintaining small structures at the same time as paying high costs in order to meet the standards required internationally, primarily in the United States, is no longer viable for banks who want to remain profitable.
In response to rumors of more interventions into financial institutions, the Superintendency of Banks in Panama says that they are unfounded, highlighting the strength of the banking system.
From a statement issued by the Superintendency of Banks of Panama:
The Superintendency of Banks in Panama made public knowledge, that as a result of taking operational and administrative control of Balboa Bank & Trust and its subsidiaries a number of comments and news stories have arisen which do not have any foundation regarding future actions that may be taken by this institution on other banks, or conditions of vulnerability of some institutions in our banking system.
As a result of the inclusion of both companies in the "Clinton" list drawn up by the US Treasury Department, the respective Superintendents have ordered interventions.
For its part the Administration of Supervision and Regulation of Non-Financial Subjects activated special supervisions in non-financial companies which are listed by the OFAC as part of the network, in this case those operating in Colon Free Zone: Grupo Wisa, S.A., Vida Panama S.A., Servicio de Equipo Rodante Incorporado and Grupo Cima S.A., among others.
Assurance has been given that companies where Continental Group or its shareholders have a minority participation may continue to operate normally.
As outlined in an article on Televicentro.hn , the general coordinator of Government, Jorge Ramon Hernandez Alcerro, stated that "... 'there are over 40 companies' which have with less than 50 percent in shares of Continental Group, whose president is the banker and politician Jaime Rosenthal."
Diagram showing the people and companies identified by actions related to money laundering, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury´s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The US Treasury Department has advised that it will not sanction individuals or institutions participating in the liquidation provided that those transactions do not benefit any individual or entity other than those previously identified by the OFAC.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department of the United States has issued a statement regarding the decision of the Honduran authorities to liquidate Continental Bank, after identifying the institution and several of its executives as being involved in drug money laundering:
It has been announced that deposits up to $9,200 (L200,000) per person will be returned, and then payments to employees, depositors and others, noting that "... there are sufficient resources to address them all."
The cause is the inclusion of the institution in the list of the U.S Office of Foreign Assets Control, and the freezing of its assets abroad.
Adherence to the group known as GAFISUD by its initials in Spanish will strengthen the work on preventing and combating money laundering and repressing terrorist financing .
A press release from the Superintendency of Banks of Guatemala reads:
The Government of the Republic of Guatemala reported that the incorporation of country into the Financial Action Task Force of South America (GAFISUD) was unanimously passed during the "XXVII Plenary of Representatives Financial Action Task Force of South America (GAFISUD)" held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from the 15th to 19th of July 2013.
While Central American businesses assume the costs of the bureaucracy associated with money laundering controls, big banks are granted a license to steal.
EDITORIAL
The United States has lost the moral authority in the fight against drug trafficking, and countries who suffer in the drug war, should taken that into account.
From 22nd to 24th August the XVI Congress Committee for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism will take place next in Panama City.
The event, organized by the Panama Banking Association, will feature experts in the field from Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, the United States, Colombia, and the host country.
ACAN - EFE quoted Julio Aguirre, president of the organizing committee who said, "To the extent that we can gather together a group of experts, we can become aware of the vulnerabilities that are registered in other countries, their experiences, the adequacy of certain laws and what is the overall conceptualization of this issue. "
The XVI Hemespheric Congress on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism will be held from 22 to 24 August in Panama.
The Banking Association of Panama, under the auspices of the Superintendency of Banks of Panama, the Superintendency for Insurance and Reinsurance, the National Securities Commission, the Public Ministry, the IPACOOP and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Panama and the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF) is pleased to invite you to participate in the XVI Congress Committee for the Prevention of Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism to be held on 22, 23 and 24 August 2012 at Hotel RIU Plaza Panama / Salon Panama.
Authorities from the hemisphere will discuss methods of preventing money laundering in financial institutions.
Experts from Costa Rica, the United States, Colombia and other Latin American countries are participating in the congress organized by the Banking Association and the Commission for the Prevention of Money Laundering, which will run until Friday.
The movement of illegal drugs is creating ever larger fortunes hand in hand with the financial system, which is used for laundering money.
Bayardo Ramírez Monagas, advisor to the Venezuelan financial system, made this comment in the thirteenth conference on Financial Supervision organized by Guatemala's Banking Regulator (SIB in Spanish) as part of his introduction to the issue of money laundering.