Panama faces OECD financial transparency test

PANAMA CONTINUES  to struggle to convince  world organizations  that it is making good on promises to make the financial sector more transparent.

On Tuesday, September  26  the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will analyze its financial transparency and its capacity to exchange tax information.

The group will determine if Panama has followed through on making  changes to its financial system to comply with international standards.

In October of last year, Panama passed the first phase of the review process.

The review is necessary so that Panama can be removed from a sanction list compiled by the OECD.

Panama was added to the list after the OECD detected a number of shortcomings in its financial system, such as the inability to provide accounting information about Panamanian entities that do not have local operations and the lack of effective responses to requests for tax information.

The country recently agreed to implement the common reporting standards that are being promoted by the OECD to lead to greater fiscal transparency, and the Cabinet Council has approved a draft law that addresses other shortcomings identified by the agency.

The review process is completely confidential.

The result of the examination will be made public November 4 at the plenary of the Global Forum of the OECD which will take place in Tbilisi, Georgia.