Last March, Panama passed Law N° 129 creating the “Private and Unique System of Registry of Final Beneficiaries of Legal Entities”.
This law applies to all legal entities incorporated or registered in this jurisdiction not suspended or dissolved and requiring by law the services of a resident agent.
In practice, this encompasses companies as well as foundations and local trusts.
The information requested from each final beneficiary is as follows: full name; ID or passport number; date of birth; nationality; address; and date on which the person became final beneficiary of the legal entity in question. This information will be kept in custody during the existence of the legal entity and for 5 years after the registration of its dissolution in the Public Registry of Panama.
Access to this information is in principle limited to the resident agent of the legal entity and two officials designated by the Superintendence of Non-Financial Subjects.
This information may be made available to the competent authorities, that is: the Superintendence of Non-Financial Subjects; the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF); the Public Prosecutor; the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) in matters of prevention of money laundering, terrorism financing, financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and precedent crimes.
For more information about this or any other news we may include in this section in the future, please do not hesitate to communicate with your usual contact at Untitled.