1. Introduction

a. History and background

The Republic of Panama is located in the narrowest and most central part of the American Continent and forms the isthmus that links North and South America. Since its separation from Colombia more than a century ago, Panama has taken advantage of its privileged and strategic geographical position to develop an important logistic and financial centre that provides all kinds of services to the international trade. Not by chance, the famous Panama Canal was built across 80 kilometres from north to south, connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, thus becoming the shortest maritime route between the north-eastern part of Asia, the west coast of the United States and the west coast of South America on the one hand, and the east coast of United States and Europe on the other hand. The country’s population is 3.1 million. The currency is the US Dollar (USD).

Panama also enjoys a sophisticated and well-regulated banking system (in accordance with Basel Committee Principles and Objectives) and hosts 89 private banks and 58 trust companies. The system is supervised by the Superintendence of Banks.

b. Legal system

The country’s legal system is based on civil law tradition. Despite that fact, the concept of trusts has been well received in Panama, whose hybrid trust law introduced some basic principles from the common law, while issues of trust ownership, trust settlements, recognition and enforcement follow civil law. Panama’s private interest foundation is a Roman/civil law tradition entity with similarities to a trust and is used for estate-planning purposes.