Panama breaches international guidelines to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing, according to an evaluation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that worries experts.

The IMF found that of the 40 recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force to combat these crimes,

• Panama complied fully with one,
• applied three broadly,
• 23 partially and
• 13 not at all.

Consultant in banking matters Ricardo Alba warned that one of the fundamental problems is that Panama has no policy to combat such felonies, and called for an effective coordination mechanism and evaluation of existing measures.

According to the IMF report, those bankers who were interviewed expressed serious concerns about the risks linked to customers with encrypted accounts or companies with bearer shares.

Rolando De Leon, vice president of Metrobank and member of the board of the Banking Association, said that banks have avoided doing business with institutions or individuals with a remarkable degree of risk.

The Panamanian Government approved in July a rule that creates a system of custody of bearer shares that was welcomed by the IMF but it will not come into force until 2015, when a transition period of three years will be opened, so that the requirement will not be effective until 2018.

http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2464361&Itemid=1