Deadline for the registration of beneficial owners of legal entities in Panama
The Superintendence of Non-Financial Entities of Panama by Ruling No. S-011-2022 established a deadline of September 30, 2022 for resident agents to register the information of the Beneficial Owners of legal entities in the Private and Unique System of Registration of Beneficial Owners.
What is meant by Beneficial Owners?
Panamanian Law 129 of March 17, 2020 defines Beneficial Owner as the natural person or persons who ultimately, directly, or indirectly, own, control and/or exercise significant influence over the customer or account relationship or contractual and/or business relationship, or the natural person or persons on whose behalf or for whose benefit a transaction is conducted. It includes the natural person or persons exercising ultimate effective control over a legal person.
The same Law establishes that a natural person has control or significant influence when he/she directly or indirectly holds 25% or more of the shares or voting rights of the company.
Private and Unique Registration System of Beneficial Owners
This system, administered by the Superintendency of Non-Financial Entities, safeguards, and ensures the privacy of the information provided by the resident agents of the legal entities for which they provide such services; therefore, any lawyer or law firm that provides professional services as a resident agent for one or more legal entities incorporated or registered in the Republic of Panama must register and keep their registration in force.
Ruling No. S-011-2022
The Ruling No. S-011-2022 issued on July 5, 2022 by the Superintendency of Non-Financial Entities of Panama establishes the procedure for the registration of resident agents in the Private and Single System for the Registration of Beneficial Owners of legal entities and the procedure for the initial registration of the information of the legal entities to whom the services and activities of the resident agent are rendered.
Basic information on beneficial owners requested by the Private and Unique System of Registration of Beneficial Ownership Platform
- Full name
- Personal identification document number
- Date of birth
- Nationality
- Address
- Date of becoming a Beneficial Owner of the entity
- Main activity of the legal entity
- Country of activity or operation of the legal entity.
Therefore, resident agents are requesting their clients in order to obtain updated information for the registration.
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