Panama aims to leave the FATF gray list this year

The implementation of the registry of end users and resident agents will be key to getting Panama off the gray list Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

According to Isabel Vecchio A.., director International Financial and Fiscal Strategy (DEFFI)from Ministry of Economy and Finance (MPEG) they team with the private sector, including banking, business, the National Bar Association, the International Bar Association, among others; as well as institutions dealing with the prevention of money laundering in order to achieve this task.

Vecchio who is also the technical secretary National Commission Against Money Laundering, Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (CNBC), He added that there are 15 points in the Panama Action Plan, 13 of which we qualified as largely fulfilled, and the other 2 partially fulfilled, pointing out that we have nothing as “unfulfilled, which is important to point out”.

He reiterated that there is currently a registry of end users, which is a closed registry, created through Law 129 of 2020where the resident agent must include information about the legal entities it represents, including the identification of the end user.

This process does not reduce the country’s competitiveness, as all jurisdictions will have to implement it in a timely manner; therefore, those countries that have a register of end users will have their information in time.

The official indicated that this information is available to competent authorities in matters of money laundering prevention, upon request or request for international cooperation, investigation, verification or similar purposes.

He also commented that the price of remaining on the gray list implies a reputational cost, and pointed out that the reality of Panama today is not the same as it was five years ago. “We have implemented effective and sustainable controls over time and we are showing it.”

The director of financial strategy pointed out that in the case of the so-called “Panama Papers” the name of our country used inappropriately; Panama is an internationally cooperative country in terms of transparency and when information is requested, we have a timely and fairly agile response time compared to other jurisdictions.

“End user identification is a worldwide requirement and all countries have to implement it, and little by little, we have to adapt to this reality, and even when a resident agent leaves the legal entity, it has to keep the data for at least five years,” he added.

He repeated that a big registration day for lawyers and resident agents is currently being held in Atlapa, with the purpose of their registration in the Register of End Users, a day that he called Administration for Non-Financial Entities (SSNF).

It is worth mentioning that Panama was included in the FATF gray list in June 2019, following the evaluation process carried out on the country within the framework of the fourth round of mutual evaluations of GAFILAT, which was focused on efficiency.