Panama is making great efforts to remove itself from the FATF list

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama, Janaina Tewaneyhe assured that he was “trying hard” to remove himself from the list FATF from tax havens and hopes that Spain’s decision not to include it in its help in this.

This is how the owner expressed himself in the EFE Tribune House of America in Madridwhere he thanked his country for this “recognition” by Spain, which invests “financial, economic and human efforts to achieve those transparency goals that are part of global standards”.

Lists of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) They qualify the countries of the world in their actions in different areas, including the prevention of money laundering, money laundering or the financing of terrorism, among others.

“A country like ours, which is polarized, is making a strong effort on the FATF list,” he insisted.

As he said, “this implementation is taking a firm step” and they believe that by uniting “this Panamanian model, diplomacy” and the help of “those countries that recognize” these efforts, they can “eventually in this period (the government) be able to get off the list.”

In addition, Tewaney alluded to relations with European Union in tax matters and admitted that they still have to implement the tax “exchange of information” that is “required” by the European bloc.

“This is the work we are doing, but it requires not only legal and legal transformations, but also internal ones, of our organization as a state, which often takes time,” he admitted.

Thus, he established that “it is important not only to get off the list, but also to stay off it”: “this is what Panama is striving for, we are ready to cross the border that some countries that indicated to us could not cross, it is a priority from countries”.

During the last FATF plenary meeting, Panama received an upgrade in the rating of its action plan and made progress on the goals achieved with 13 actions from 15 which the Agency established in June 2019.

The state strengthened its legal and institutional capacities through a Specialized prosecutor in money laundering investigations for tax crimes committed abroad.