Panama: Registration of Beneficial Owners

Through Law 129 of 2020, the Private and Unique System of Beneficial Owners is created, a platform through which Panamanian lawyers who provide resident agent services to legal entities in Panama must register each of such entities and upload in the corresponding web platform the general data of the beneficial owners or persons with adequate control of the entities to which they provide services. In addition, the platform's administration oversees the Superintendence of Non-Financial Entities of the Republic of Panama.

It is essential to determine, without a doubt, the identity of the person(s) who, according to current legislation, is considered the beneficial owner or person with effective control over the entity to provide accurate and correct information to the regulatory body.

In this sense, Law 129 of 2020 defines a beneficial owner as the natural person or persons who, directly or indirectly, own, control or exercise significant influence over the account relationship, contractual or business relationship or the natural person on whose behalf or benefit a transaction is carried out, which also includes natural persons exercising ultimate control over a legal entity.

The applicable regulations impose on the resident agent the obligation to keep the database of entities registered in the Sole Registry of Beneficial Owners updated and on the legal representative of the legal entity to provide the resident agent with the information required for full compliance with the referred Law 129 of 2020 and its modification contained in Law 254 of November 2021. Likewise, the legal representative of the legal entity must notify the resident agent, within a term not exceeding 15 business days from the date of the change, of any variation in the information of the registered beneficial owner.

It is the natural person or persons who, directly or indirectly, own, control or exercise significant influence over the account relationship, contractual relationship, or business relationship or the natural person on whose behalf or for whose benefit a transaction is carried out, which also includes natural persons who exercise ultimate control over a legal entity.

Likewise, due to a lack of cooperation from a client, the resident agent, who cannot comply with the obligations arising from Law 129 of 2020 and its modifications, must resign from his post as the agent of the legal entity. Otherwise, resident agents may be sanctioned with fines from one thousand dollars ($1,000.00) to fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00) for each legal entity whose information is not registered or updated as required by the regulations.

Should you require any additional information regarding the registration of beneficial owners in Panama, please get in touch with us at Contact@viss.com.hk.