Panama Offshore Banking: Asset & Privacy Protection
Kenneth Rodeislan
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's offshore banking success story can be attributed to the fact that the United States removed Panama from the uncooperative tax haven list after Panama overhauled it's banking standards and regulation to help the international community root out serious criminals such as drug traffickers.
Panama has also become an industry leader in the banking and financial sectors in that they have announced their support of the FATF and OECD movements. Implementation of measures to combat money laundering and terrorist funding activities occurred due to these measures .
Under the new rule enforcement large deposits and withdrawals must pass a screening system where suspicious transactions are reported to international monitoring agencies. It should be noted that so long as you are not committing any illegal acts and are strictly using Panama as a privacy haven you will never run into problems. Panama's banking secrecy laws protect you as an account signatory and this information can only be passed to Panama authorities under a court order. Your corporate bank account transactions will only be executed in the name of the corporation not your personal name. Also, your corporation can be registered anonymously in bearer share form in Panama making this asset protection and privacy protection the best available in the world today for a non blacklisted country.
Panama became very aware that it had to start "cleaning up its image" several years ago, and as a result, they went on a mission to enhance that image and implement the improvements necessary to make them a major player in the offshore banking market. Knowing your customers more thoroughly includes tighter reference requirements as well as fund origination.
Panama has climbed to the top of the offshore banking world and is arguably right behind Switzerland in popularity now. Switzerland gets all the spotlight and Panama is just fine with that. Panama continues to enforce it's banking secrecy laws with vigor as they know their international reputation depends on it.
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.
The government has become very proactive in these areas, and continues to create and implement legislation that enables banking in Panama to continue to excel in the international financial industry.
About the Author:
For more information regarding the offshore banking industry or to get a Panama bank account please visit the OffshoreLegal.org website.
|
