Panama Banks: Offshore Banking With Privacy Protection

Panama City is one of the little know jewels of Central America. The skyline of Panama is literally dotted with enough skyscrapers and bank towers that you would think you were in London or New York city. More importantly, these banking institutions are currently enjoying a renewed interest from foreign investors since they have one of the most stable, secure and private offshore banking industries in the world.

Panama has become the most modern and successful country in Latin America and its international banking center can be described in a similar fashion. The country recently enacted legislation that meets the exacting standards for transparency and regulation, and this obviously was the appeal for the 85+ banks from 35 different countries that can be found in Panama.

Panama has taken the gauntlet and run with it by supporting both the FATF and OECD doctrines. These measures were enacted by the international community that is concerned with money laundering, terrorist financing and drug trafficking offenses. A crack down on this type of activity was to be expected after 9 / 11 and Panama and it’s banks made the right steps to ensure their place in the international offshore banking community has been protected.

Just as the practice occurs in the United States, it has become common practice in Panama to put tighter controls on banks so that they now are reporting all deposits and withdrawals in amounts exceeding $10,000. This control was also implemented as a direct result of the FATF and OECD movements as well. Panama has been removed from the non-cooperative tax haven list and is reaping the rewards.

Panama had a lot riding on making the proper choices in terms of what regulations they needed to accept to continue to draw new banking clients as well as keep capital from leaving the country if they gave up too much privacy which is the big attraction of Panama to many investors.

Panama has risen to the top of the pack and become one of the most secure offshore international financial centers in the world through their rock solid banking secrecy laws and steadfast enforcement of these laws.

Cleaning up the banking system in Panama and removing criminals ability to easily and anonymously move money through their banks is also great for the new generation of offshore banking clients choosing Panama. Since Panama has cleaned up their image quite a bit it means those who choose to bank there will also be viewed under the same light. As the only saying goes if you sleep with dogs you will get fleas. Panama has done a great job cleaning up it’s image and it’s customers are the one’s to reap the rewards.

Panama’s banks and government are doing everything in their power to maintain the good reputation they have built since billions of dollars and over 40,000 Panamanian jobs in the banking industry are at stake. They are not going to break their own rules to deal with a criminal if they can avoid it and happily scrutinize customers more closely when setting up bank accounts.