Cortizo, optimistic that Panama will leave the gray list in 2023

Panama is continuing its efforts to get off the gray list, which could happen this year, according to president Laurentin Cortiz.

The CEO told the Financial Times newspaper this week that the country had completed one of the final tasks assigned by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to leave the list.

According to Cortizo, they hope the delisting will happen soon, which for him means this year. For this purpose, he personally follows the team working on the issue.

It is a challenge that the president has been striving for for years. In 2019 it was expected that by June 2020 the country was not part of the list, which did not happen.

In this sense, international media add that a senior official of the United States Embassy confirmed that there is a very good possibility that Panama will be removed from the FATF gray list, which could happen before the end of 2023 if sufficient progress is achieved. with the register of real owners of these companies.

Cortizo noted that Panama is not a haven for dirty money and is always open to good investments.

Last month, Isabel Vecchio, Director of International Financial and Fiscal Strategy (DEFFI) at the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), also highlighted the possibility of leaving the list this year.

According to the official, the Panama Action Plan has 15 points, of which 13 are classified as largely fulfilled, and the other 2 are partially fulfilled.

He emphasized that there is currently a register real ownerswhich is a closed register, created by Law 129 of 2020, where the resident agent must include information about the legal entities they represent, including the identification of the end user.

In its last review, in February, the FATF kept the country on its gray list of countries with deficiencies in the fight against money laundering.