Panama closer to exiting money laundering gray list

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will be making an on-site visit to Panama to verify the country’s progress in creating a legal framework to prevent money laundering.

Deputy Minister of Finance, Eyda Varela Chinchilla, who leads a Panamanian delegation to  a plenary  meeting in Paris made the announcement on Tuesday, Oct 29

“There were 13 countries that supported the initiative to move to the final stage, among which wereSpain, USA, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Portugal, India, Brazil and the UK who supported and highlighted the speed of execution, despite Panama’s ambitious action plan  said “Varela Chinchilla in an interview on Telemetro

The site visit is a requirement for the country to get out of the FATF,   gray list of where it has been since June 2014because of weaknesses in the fight against money laundering. At that time Panama and the international organization agreed on an action plan with a series of measures the country would have to implement to improve its legal framework.

If FATF representatives consider when they visit that Panama has complied with the implementation of the action plan and therefore is not as vulnerable to money laundering, the country could exit the list in 2016.

“Being on the Graylist  generates a perception of high risk ” said Varela Chinchilla, while an “eventual exit sends a transparency message to the world “.