A bill on Money Laundering proposes creating stricter regulations to govern companies that perform money transfers.
About 16 companies are in the sights of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MICI) because of the number of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on possible money laundering.
It is for this reason that through a bill soon to be presented to Congress the MICI and the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF), will insist that documents are requested from customers making deposits or carrying out money transfers. When the bill is passed, the Ministry of Commerce will have to re-establish regulations for 581 companies which include remittance companies and credit history agencies operating in Panama.
The Monetary Board has issued regulations governing the registration of local rating agencies, and the requirement for all financial institutions to be qualified.
In addition the Monetary Board (MB), published the regulation on Concentration in Contingencies and Investments as well as issues related to the operating permits for offshore entities, regulations that are part of the changes made to the Banking Act and financial groups that were in effect before April 1.
Rating agencies registration is now mandatory and banking institutions must be rated by one of them.
Rating agencies will have to submit their paperwork to the Superintendency of Banks (SIB). According to the chairman of the Monetary Board (JM) and the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat), Edgar Barquin, "among the amendments to the Law on Banks and Financial Groups is the addition that now banks must have a risk rating" .
The amendments to the Law on Banks and Financial Groups, which provide greater control for the country's financial system, are now in effect.
"One of the most important reforms is that the Superintendency of Banks (SIB), has the power to limit banks, finance companies and offshore entities in the distribution of dividends," noted an article in Prensalibre.com .
Better risk management will be required of banks and greater analysis of the capacity to pay by debtors who have exposure to exchange rate risk.
Nacion.com reports that "banks who grant loans in dollars, especially to customers who have no income in that currency must now be more rigorous and provide more information to financial supervisors on these loans."
The Superintendency of Banks in Guatemala is calling for public consultation on draft regulations for operational risk management for banking security.
According to an article in Prensalibre.com the intention is to regulate the minimum measures that banks must observe in the national system for managing operational risk in areas such as technology security, vaulting and customer service, among other things.
The law which will give life to a new supervisory body for financial and banking activities will be submitted to the legislative plenary next week.
The ruling on the law establishing the Financial Analysis Unit (Unidad de Análisis Financiero (UAF) in Spanish) will be presented on Friday and will be sent to the plenary of the National Assembly next week, said Rep. Wálmaro Gutierrez, president of the Committee on Economy, Budget and Production.
The Honduran Association of Banking Institutions is calling for a balance between regulation and promoting development, protesting against unrealistic regulations nationwide.
The Honduran bank said existing regulations are "very strict" and has called for a balance between regulation and promoting development, taking into account local characteristics reported Tiempo.hn.
From the merger of three former superintendents: Securities, Pensions and Financial System, emerges the strengthened SFF, which will focus on risk management.
The newly created Superintendency of the Financial System (SFF in Spanish), which encompasses the previous three superintendencies (securities, pensions and financial system) has started its first project, the creation of four new regulations aimed at financial risk.
Some entities said they would be willing to declare their individual data if the Sugef removes the restriction.
Since the weekly newspaper El Financiero filed a lawsuit pushing for banks to publish their capital adequacy indicators, the issue has been debated by the General Superintendency of Financial Institutions (Sugef) and the banking market.
Following this, a group of banks have said they would not object to disclosing the information, as long as the publications are endorsed by Sugef.
The financial soundness indicator of banks may no longer be kept secret if the Constitutional Court decides that it shouldn’t be.
An appeal filed by the weekly paper El Financiero could lead to a decision to make public the indicators of capital adequacy of banks in the country.
Currently this indicator is not published by the Superintendency of Financial Institutions (Sugef) meaning that bank users do not have this information when making decisions about which institution to turn to.
The amended regulations have now been published in the Official Gazette.
The new law regulating the securities market in Panama takes effect from 2 September, establishing how participants in the stock market must operate, and what regulations they must comply with.
The next step will be to turn the Comisión de Valores into a superintendency, which must be done within two months, as required by law.
Act 311 establishes a system of coordination and institutional cooperation between local financial control centers and creates a Superintendency of the Stock Market in the reform of Decree Law 1 of 1999 and Act 10 of 1993.
A statement by the National Assembly of Panama says that the financial system will be reordered and a Superintendency of the Stock Market created after the assembly passed the bill on its third reading.
The new supervisory body merges the former Superintendency of Securities, Pensions and Finances.
Entitled the Superintendencia del Sistema Financiero (Financial Superintendency System), the body will presided over by Victor Ramirez, who served as chief of the superintendency of the same name.
The purpose of the institution is to supervise financial groups more efficiently using a single organization, rather than three different ones.