In Panama, as well as some other countries such as the British Virgin Islands and Costa Rica, the creation of a Registry of Final Beneficiaries of Legal Entities was approved, which is totally PRIVATE, free and with limited access. The purpose of this registry is to facilitate access to the COMPETENT AUTHORITY on the information of final beneficiaries of LEGAL persons and thus collaborate in the prevention of the crimes of money laundering, financing of terrorism and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Let us remember that in Panama the information of the shareholders / beneficiaries of corporations does not appear in the Public Registry of Panama, as well as the name of Beneficiaries of Private Interest Foundations or Trusts. Therefore, on some occasions, it has been difficult for the competent authorities to obtain the necessary information, since it was not available in any formal registry.
The responsibility for registering the final beneficiaries has been assigned to the figure of the RESIDENT AGENT and the registration will be administered by the Superintendence of Non-Financial Subjects.
This requires the company to have a Resident Agent and that he or she registers the information through the Unique Registration Code (CUR) assigned by the Superintendence. If the information is not registered, the corporate rights of said legal entity before the Public Registry of Panama will be suspended.
For better understanding, “Beneficial Owner” means any person or natural persons who directly or indirectly own, control and/or exercise significant influence over the account relationship, contractual relationship and/or business. The criteria established by the Law are summarized as “shareholding” and “control”.
The Registered Agent will have thirty (30) business days to register the information, counted from the incorporation of the legal entity or the date on which any change is generated.
There are fines for both people who have access to the information and registered agents who fail to comply with the obligation to enter the information.
Registered Agents will have six (6) months to register with the Registered Agents Registry and enter the appropriate beneficial ownership information.
By: Licda. Alexandra Kourany Moltó
LEGALIA PANAMA
