On March 25, the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Panama issued Executive Decree N°13, creating the Regulations for the Private and Unique System of Registration of Beneficial Owners of Legal Entities for lawyers and law firms working as resident agents in the country.
Background
In March 2020, the Private and Unique System of Registration of Beneficial Owners of Legal Persons was created by Law 129 and subsequently amended by Law 254 in November 2021.
The objective was to facilitate the access of information on beneficial owners of legal persons collected by lawyers or law firms providing resident agent services to assist the competent authority in the prevention of the following crimes:
- Money laundering
- Terrorist financing
- Financing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Contents of the Decree
Said Regulation establishes instructions regarding the registration of resident agents, implemented by the Superintendence of Non-Financial Subjects, the data to be provided. In addition, the assignment of the CUR (Código Único de Registro – Unique Registration Code) for each resident agent complies with the required documentation, the activation, inactivation, and the grounds for its deactivation are established.
On the other hand, the resident agent with active CUR must digitally provide the data provided for in Article 10 of Law 129 of 2020 in the Unified System. Likewise, the verification of the information and the dates for updating the beneficial owner registry are established.
Finally, sanctions for non-compliance are decreed, such as the suspension of corporate rights of legal entities that have not been duly registered or updated in the Unified System.
Source: Gaceta Oficial 28/03/22