Offshore Banking Secrecy Laws In Panama

By: Meredith Piaget

Panama is willing to hold off the world to uphold it's Banking Secrecy laws. That alone should comfort you that your assets are safe and secure. For more information one would have to look closer at Panama's international relationships and study Panama secrecy laws.

Panama is a member of the Mutual Legal Assisstance Treaty (MLAT). This treaty allows for international cooperation to bring cring criminals to justice. There are several conditions that must be met in order for Panama to comply to this treaty and bend their own Secrecy Laws. There must already be a case filed in the requesting country's national court. The crime under investigation must be a crime in both countries. The requesting country must be specific on what information they wish to obtain. They must show that the information is absolutely required to prosecute the case. Only extremely serious crimes would be considered such as drug smuggling, terrorism and money laundering. All of these are subjective and Panama could decide to conduct it's own investigation first before giving up any information to foreign countries. This could delay the proceeding substantially.

Panama doesn't like to go against its secrecy laws and it is only under suspicion of serious criminal activity where it will consider it. Court orders are only used in serious crimes include terrorism, child pornography, money laundering and drug smuggling.

Article 65 of Cabinet Decree 238 says that the National Banking Commission may only inspect the general bank books and not single out individual bank accounts. This can only be broken by a court order.

Court orders are only used in serious crimes include terrorism, child pornography, money laundering and drug smuggling. Panama doesn't like to go against its secrecy laws and it is only under suspicion of serious criminal activity where it will consider it.

Panama is a member of the Mutual Legal Assisstance Treaty (MLAT). This treaty allows for international cooperation to bring cring criminals to justice. Only extremely serious crimes would be considered such as drug smuggling, terrorism and money laundering. There are several conditions that must be met in order for Panama to comply to this treaty and bend their own Secrecy Laws. The crime under investigation must be a crime in both countries. There must already be a case filed in the requesting country's national court. The requesting country must be specific on what information they wish to obtain. They must show that the information is absolutely required to prosecute the case. All of these are subjective and Panama could decide to conduct it's own investigation first before giving up any information to foreign countries. This could delay the proceeding substantially.

So, Panama is willing to hold off the world to up hold it's Banking Secrecy laws. What could be safer than that?

Article Source: http://www.articlesindex.com


For more information about panama's banking secrecy laws or offshore asset protection please visit OffshoreLegal.org