Panama remains on money-laundering gray list

Panama continues on the gray list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of countries with deficiencies in the fight against money laundering.

The information was released Friday, October 21, by the president of the FATF, after a plenary session held in Paris, where the exit from the gray list of Nicaragua and Pakistan was also announced after correcting the failures that were detected.

After learning of the agency’s decision, the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) said in a statement that Panama obtained a rating upgrade, which allows progress in the FATF Action Plan.

The Vice Minister of Finance, Jorge Luis Almengor, and the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marta Gordón, reiterated the commitment, to comply with the action plan and strengthen the money laundering prevention system.

On the three pending actions to comply with the 15 established by FATF, the MEF indicates that significant progress was made, which resulted in the sub-actions to be fulfilled being substantially reduced.

According to the MEF, Panama should focus on completing the effective implementation of the Single Registry of Final Beneficiaries, a complementary mechanism that the country adopted to guarantee that resident agents have available updated and verified information on the final beneficiary of Panamanian legal entities. 

Of the action related to investigations of money laundering that has foreign tax crimes as a precedent, sufficient evidence of effectiveness was provided in each of the three sub-points that make up this action, said the MEF

Fellow travelers
Along with Panama, Albania, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, Haiti, Jamaica, Jordan, Mali, Morocco, the Philippines, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, and the United Arab Emirates continue on the gray list.

In June 2019, Panama was included in the FATF gray list and the administration of President Laurentino Cortizo, who had just won the presidential elections, made a commitment to comply with the action plan established by the multilateral organization. Since then, progress has been made, but there are still pending issues to comply with and get out of the gray list.