IMF Staff Country Reports

This paper explains a technical note on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism in Panama. Enhancing transparency of legal persons and arrangements established in Panama has been a top priority for the country and remains the subject of ongoing reforms. The continuous and large-scale outreach efforts to promote registration in the Registro Único de Beneficiarios Finales (RUBF) are commendable and need to be sustained. The continuous and large-scale outreach efforts to promote registration in the RUBF are commendable and need to be sustained. As a result of concerted efforts to ‘clean up’ the public registry, Panama currently has a large number of suspended legal persons—close to half a million—that require a path to dissolution. In the medium term, the evolving corporate landscape in Panama should be monitored closely, and risk assessments should be updated to reflect emerging business models and potential exposures to new threats and vulnerabilities. The authorities should enact legislation addressing virtual assets and virtual asset service providers that complies with Financial Action Task Force Recommendation 15 and international best practices.