Panama and Nicaragua are among the ten countries in Latin America with the highest risk of money laundering, according to the Basel Institute of Governance.
The anti-money laundering index (AML) prepared by the Basel Institute of Governance places Panama in fourth place in the list of countries with the highest risk of money laundering and financing of terrorist activities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Gafilat has identified the outstanding tasks needed to bring up to date matters relating to financing terrorism, control of casinos and the inclusion of lawyers in the Mandated Persons category.
The ruling was made by the Financial Action Task Force for Latin America (Gafilat), who released the Mutual Evaluation Report, up to the date of the in situ visit made between November 23 and December 4, 2015.
The figure is an estimate made by the Intelligence Directorate in Costa Rica released by the US State Department, along with information that indicates a rise in criminal organizations based in the country, and little capacity to combat them.
Money laundering is a criminal activity that handles amounts that are difficult to measure. For example, the report "Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2004-2013" by Global Financial Integrity says that during the aforementioned 10 year period, the flow of illicit money from Costa Rica exceeded $11 billion, that is about $1.1 billion a year.
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 congress will analyze creating new controls and improving existing ones to prevent money laundering.
Experts from Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala, U.S., Dominican Republic, Colombia and Panama will be present at the activity, to be held from August 26 to 28.
Julio César Aguirre, president of the organizing committee, remarked: "The felony of money laundering and financing terrorism is complex, hard to prevent, not easy to investigate, and even harder to penalize. Therefore, constant training and actualization is necessary and obligated", reported Yahoo Noticias.