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Panama is the "new Switzerland". Switzerland was once known for numbered bank accounts, but today these types of accounts are no longer available. Panama does not have numbered accounts, but it does have the next best thing. Panama has bearer share corporations which can own a bank account. These corporations have no ownership records. The person in possession of the share certificates owns the corporation, and thus the bank account. Who's name is on the bank account? Someone has to sign on the bank account. Every corporation has one or more people with signing authority on its bank accounts. This does NOT mean they are the owner of the funds. It merely means the corporation has assigned them the responsibility of managing the bank account. The beneficial owner of the bank account is the corporation, not the signatory. Take Walmart for example. Walmart has certain employees who are authorized to sign on one or more of their many bank accounts. Walmart is the beneficial owner of the money, while the signatory is just an employee. If the employee were to be sued because someone slipped on his/her driveway walmart's money is not at risk. Similarly the employee does not claim walmart's money on his/her taxes. I understand I am just a signatory on the bank account and the bearer share corporation owns the money but I still want to know who can find out I sign on the bank account and how? Panama has strong bank secrecy laws, both on paper and in practice. Here are some of the more relevant sections of Panamanian banking law: Article 74 of Decree 238 prevents the Panama banking commission from conducting investigations on individual banking clients. Any information it uncovers while doing its regulatory operations cannot be revealed to any person or authority, unless subpoenaed by a Panama court order. Anyone found violating this order is subject to Article 101 which states: " Any person who furnishes information in violation of this Cabinet Decree, or who violates any of the prohibitions established in it, for which no specific punishment is provided for, shall be subject to a monetary fine as determined by the Banking Commission, without prejudice to applicable criminal and civil liabilities." Article 65 of Cabinet Decree 238 regulates how the National Banking Commission gets access to banking information and documents. It clearly states that the Commission may only inspect the books of the bank in general and cannot single out individual bank accounts. This includes both deposits and securities held by the bank. Again this can only be broken by a court order. Now loo
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