Panama Banks are Extremely Happy

Banks in Panama are pleased with their performances.  According to data provided to us from the Panama banking system, the mortgage portfolio is maintaining sustained growth year after year, ranking in the first place within the total credit balances with an amount of US$20,626,474,788 as of February 2024, distributed in 333,563 commitments.  96% of people pay their mortgages on time, and at the end of February 2024, only 4.3% of people have arrears of more than 61 days, which indicates that it is a very healthy portfolio. 

Personal loans occupy the second place with an amount of US$7,982,411, divided into 610,841 bonds as of February 2024 with an average balance of 13,068, reflecting an increase of 5% compared to the same period in 2023, with a balance of US$7,599,900,033, with a default of 3.8% at more than 61 days.  Car loans in banking institutions in February 2024, totaled a balance of US$1,923,216,354, reflecting an increase of 5.9% compared to the same period of the previous year, when it had a balance of US$1,815,095,523. 

The Banks in Panama are happy.  The largest bank is Banco General and they are so happy that they are Yappy!!!  Number 2 in Panama is Banistmo with their mothership in Colombia where they are the number one bank in that country, and the bank is called Bancolombia. Who brings the most money into Panama and has always done so?  Colombians of course.  I do remember many years ago when we would see Colombian’s bringing in suitcases of cash into Banco Nacional.  It certainly doesn’t happen like that any more, at least in public sight.  It is actually very difficult to bring large amounts of cash into Panama these days without major scrutiny as to the origin of these funds.