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Panama Licensed Financial Service companies have become a very popular vehicle for international financial services businesses in recent years, due to the relative speed and ease with which one may obtain a licence. A provisional license may be obtained by our law firm within as little as one business day. The full Class “A” Financial Services license will be issued within two weeks, and supplied along with a certified English translation with apostille.

Basic Legal Structure

The basis of this construction is a generally an anonymous Sociedad Anonima Bearer Share Panama Corporation, though you could also use a Panama SRL if preferred. This entity will then be additionally licensed by the Panamanian authorities as a Class A Financial Services Corporation. The license is in the name of the Corporation. Your name does not appear on the license or in any public registry relating to the corporation, so privacy is preserved. The Corporation Nominee Directors who are Panamanians will take out the license. The license is an official license with colored seals, stamps and apostille and is suitable for public display on your website or in a frame on your office wall.

What does the Class A Financial Services License specifically allow?

This license allows the corporation to engage in certain financial activities in Panama.

General Financial Consulting – Independent Financial Advisor, Financial Planner etc.

Debit, Credit or Prepaid Card Program Administration – This is useful for bank card programs where funds are received from or on behalf of individual cardholders and held in a central master account.

Currency Exchange Merchant - The licensed corporation can operate a virtual gold or currency exchange merchant where you are accepting payments of any form for purchase and sale of digital currencies.

E-Wallet – The Corporation may be used for operation of an e-wallet or electronic cash system where funds are received for further credit into an individuals e-wallet account, or for person to person and consumer to business payments via an online interface. (This is the business model of Paypal, for example)

Factoring – You may operate a factoring business to buy and sell receivables and liabilities of other companies.

Leasing – You may arrange leasing of capital equipment, vehicles, intellectual property etc, including sale and leaseback arrangements with other companies.

Money Exchange and Precious Metals - The licensed company may open a physical Casa de Cambio (trading of Foreign Currency) operation in Panama. For example you may convert Euros into US Dollars for tourists, or buy and sell gold coins for cash or bank wires. You may also arrange cash advances on credit cards, and offer check cashing services. Such activity however is subject to further AML regulation: you must file monthly returns with client data for all transactions over $10,000 to the Financial Analysis Unit in Panama. In addition of course the corporation may also engage in any other lawful activity that corporations can normally engage in without a license.

Local Gold

The uncertainty surrounding the fate of the dollar has led to a flood of questions recently about where you can physically buy gold in Panama. Many experts are now no longer recommending investment in gold certificates through ETFs and the like, with bank and underwriter collapses making electronic gold risky. And that’s not even mentioning the criminal lawsuits in the USA against e-gold, and the burgeoning but risky “electronic money” business here in Panama.

So let’s say you have a small amount of cash and you want to buy gold. In Panama City you can buy gold coins in a number of cambios (in Spanish: casas de cambio). One, for example, is PanaCambios on Via España in the financial heart of Panama City. They are located next to Plaza Concordia, behind the big Adams clothing store. They are conveniently situated just a short walk from business hotels like the Riande Continental, El Panama, the Marriott and The Executive Hotel.

You’ll find, however, that the spreads (difference between buying and selling prices) are quite high. You can usually negotiate a better price for larger quantities, but remember if you enter or leave the country with more than $10,000 you are obliged to fill out a customs declaration. This applies equally to gold coins.

What gold coins can you actually buy? Typically Maple Leafs, Gold Eagles, Krugerrands or Mexican Centenarios. Through the 1970s and 1980s however, Panama produced its own Gold Balboa coins in denominations of $500 and $100.  These are also sometimes available, as are Silver Balboas, now a collectors’ item.

Source: http://www.dobusinessinpanama.com