Panama City, Jul 21 (EFE).- The Panamanian President, Laurentino Cortizo, highlighted this Friday before the XLVII Meeting of Representatives and Working Groups of the Latin American Financial Action Task Force (Gafilat) Panama’s commitment to international financial and fiscal transparency.
“Panama has established national policies to help prevent and combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Similarly, we have strengthened cooperation mechanisms among member countries,” Cortizo said at the event held in the Panamanian capital.
In this regard, the president indicated that his administration has given priority to institutional strengthening to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing, through a “robust culture of compliance and transparency.”
The president also recognized that Gafilat’s support has been and is essential for the proper implementation of FATF (International Financial Action Task Force) standards and the strengthening of financial services in all member countries.
Panama had been included in 2014 on the FATF gray list of countries or jurisdictions with deficiencies in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. He left in 2016 but returned in June 2019.
Then, the Central American country assumed the political commitment to work with the FATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its regime against money laundering and to prevent the capital from being used to finance terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
FATF representatives will make a trip to the Central American country next September as part of the steps to remove it from the list of nations with deficiencies in the fight against money laundering.
The Panamanian Minister of Economy and Finance, Héctor Alexander, referred this Friday to the “unique significance” and the impact of these Gafilat meetings “on the global results against organized crime.”
The president of Gafilat, Jorge Omar Chediak González, said today that the meeting held in Panama is “reliable” proof of the commitment of the member countries and their authorities to “advance in compliance with technical and regulatory issues and comply in the best way with the international standard in this matter”.
“There has also been progress in technical assistance and cooperation,” Chediak said.
Prevention of money laundering, financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; Virtual assets, regional training and the use of financial intelligence products were topics analyzed at the XLVII Gafilat Meeting in Panama, all focused mainly on the Latin American region, the Panamanian government reported. EFE
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