Panama remains on the gray list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), of countries with deficiencies in the fight against money laundering, although it managed to advance 11 of the 15 points that it must overcome to get out of it, the Panamanian government reported this Friday. in a press release.
“Panama manages to advance 11 of 15 points established in the Action Plan of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to get out of the discriminatory lists in which it was included in June 2019”; indicated the note.
The multilateral organization acknowledged, after concluding its plenary this Friday in Berlin, Germany, that the country has taken measures to improve its anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing regime.
As detailed in this statement, Panama made significant progress regarding the monitoring of the corporate sector, considerably increasing the supervisions carried out by the Superintendence of Non-Financial Subjects.
In addition, progress in money laundering investigations in high-risk areas, particularly investigations involving foreign predicate offenses and the seizure and forfeiture of proceeds of crime, is highlighted.
In April of this year, an inter-institutional team led by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) supported Panama’s advances before the FATF Joint Group of the Americas, achieving an advance of three ratings. This is in addition to eight actions, bringing the total to 11 long-completed actions as of March 2022.
The note adds that, among the advances supported by Panama, the increase in investigations for money laundering stands out, which went from 20 to 89; the supervisory bodies imposed 35 sanctions and an additional 15 processes were initiated.
“The Superintendency of Non-Financial Subjects (SSNF) has scheduled 45 follow-up supervisions for 2022. In the first quarter, the SSNF carried out 12 follow-up supervisions in high-risk sectors, including lawyers (7), free zone (4) and casinos (1). They all gave positive results in terms of compliance,” he stresses.
The SSNF presented the draft of the Lawyers’ Agreement, as part of the risk mitigation strategy, product of the Sectoral Risk Assessment of Legal Entities and Trusts.
“Six investigations have been initiated for money laundering, with a predicate offense of tax fraud in different jurisdictions, generating more than 1.5 million balboas in cash or seized goods, two international red alerts, two accusations, 14 requests for mutual legal assistance and 13 information exchange requests, through the asset recovery network of the Financial Action Group of Latin America (GAFILAT),” he reported.
Panama has continuously presented significant and tangible advances that include legislative modifications, exhaustive development of risk analysis, implementation of regulations, development of a registry of final beneficiary and the increase in investigations focused on predicate offenses abroad, among others. aspects, he reiterates.
