Financial transparency report due Nov. 15

A REPORT  being prepared by a committee  set up  to propose   measures  to make Panama’s financial industry more transparent  will be released on Nov. 15.

The announcement  was made by President Juan Carlos Varela during a press conference held following independence activities in El Chorillo on November 2.

The committee was installed April 29 in response to the leak of documents from the law firm Mossack Fonseca. The documents known as The Panama Papers showed that the law firm used financial vehicles such as anonymous societies and international business corporations to facilitate the avoidance of taxes.

The committee initially included three foreign experts, but two of them, one a Nobel Prize Laureate, resigned due to their concerns that there was lack of transparency in the committee and that the report  was vetted by the government.

Their decision to resign was called “unfortunate” by Minister of Economy and Finance Dulcidio De la Guardia.