Which bank for consultancy / dropshipping business from Panama ?

[Mr Wolf]

Hi to everyone here,
After carefully reading a lot of threads, I think my question is answered nowhere so I dare to post it here:

ASSUMPTIONS:
I'm a french citizen, who lived in Russia till last year and decided to move to Panama City (Panama).
Get the Panamanian Friend Nation Visa was easy.
Opening a Panamanian Company was easy.
Opening a personal bank account was easy.
All this is done.
My business is to sell books and consultancy services through eCommerce websites, which I can do from any part of the world.

NEED:
Now the tricky part is to open a Corporate Bank account for my Panamanian company. Forget the local banks to open a corporate account, as they have changed attitude since the Panamanian Papers scandal.
What I need is to find a way to get a corporate bank account (whether bank or EMI), from an entity which is accepting to work with a Panamanian company (run by a EU citizen: me),
and can idealy provide an IBAN number, so my clients from Europe can pay me without fear or being questioned by their bank.
My Turnover is too small to raise interest from "big players": $100k to $300k a year.

FINDINGS SO FAR:
- Transferwise can send money TO Panama, but cannot be used in my case to get an account for my Panamanian Company (tell me if I'n wrong)
- Mister Tango seems to be a good fit, but I read a lot of -very bad comments about them, and it seems they do not take new clients to date


Any advice will be taken with deep respect and gratitude !

 

[Tax Cow]

Saxo Bank (Denmark) works with properly vetted Panama corps and individuals, but the core of their business is investment/brokerage house/FX. Worth a try if you want to do a bit of investing or FX aside from accepting book royalty payments. Their rates are similar to TransferWise but worse than IB.

TransferWise does work with Panama individuals and corps, but they do not support FCC payments. This means that TW does not support payments to Panama, unless your Panamanian bank can accept USD without an intermediary bank. Most banks in Panama, including BGeneral and Banistmo use an intermediary bank in the United States to accept international USD payments. TW will probably be highly impractical for your scenario, even if they accept you.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Thanks for the tip ! Does Saxo require a face to face meeting ?
It turns out I also setup a « fundo privado » in Panama to manage friends and family crypto portfolios... Do you know how « crypro compliant » Saxo can be ? Better know tjat before mentioning any crypto business opportunity...

 

[Tax Cow]

Crypto exposure is not a problem for Saxo, a brief search will make it very clear. Remote opening is possible, but in this case, your chances are better with an introducer.

Obviously, source of funds checks may be done whenever they see fit, crypto or not. I'm not interested in crypto, but I assume that in this case, you are expected to show crypto contracts, tax statement which shows you paid tax on your coins, withdrawals/deposits @ other exchanges, or similar stuff.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Introduction: i have no clue how and where to find such contact...
Now regarding funds check: yes, I’m head of research for a PE fund since 7 years: i know every inch of each KYC/AML & compliance process used in funds... and will do the same for my tiny crypto fund...

So Saxo is the only option for me ?
Any more possibility ?

 

[Tax Cow]

@Mr Wolf

Your alternatives are mostly "payment tax" EMIs and banks: typically, anywhere from 0.5% to 2% incoming/outgoing payment fee.

If lucky, maybe you'll find something cheaper in Bulgaria, Lithuania or Malta. Out of 3, only Lithuania has some credibility. Search the respective database to see which institutions are licensed for payments in Lithuania, and then browse the homepage of each payment institution to see if some of them work with Panama corps: List of licenses (Official FI DB of Lithuania - payments/cards. Adjust the 'Activity' criteria as needed)

Aside from manual search work, you can contact offshore service providers to get their "list of banking options", but they generally only refer to institutions that offer them hefty commissions on top of the introduction fee they charge from you. In my experience, not an optimal route to best banking relationships.

 

[fshore]

Use transferwise to accept then transfer from transferwise to another account not in panama.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Hi there people,

just to let you know that I have a friend in Panama who's using transferwise for USD transfer from Europe to Panamanian bank account (Banistmo), with intermediary bank, with absolutely no problem.

sorry xzars, but your "This means that TW does not support payments to Panama, unless your Panamanian bank can accept USD without an intermediary bank." assertion is wrong.

 

[Tax Cow]

just to let you know that I have a friend in Panama who's using transferwise for USD transfer from Europe to Panamanian bank account (Banistmo), with intermediary bank, with absolutely no problem.

Good to know! Is there an option to specify intermediary bank info with TW transfer (via support?), or does he just leave it unspecified? Last time I checked, for Panama, or for any other country, there is no option to specify intermediary bank information with USD transfers.

Also check their page about FCC payments: For Further Credit (FFC) payments | TransferWise Help Centre

"A ’For Further Credit’ (FFC) payment is a transfer where the money is sent to the final beneficiary’s bank account via an intermediary bank.

Unfortunately, we cannot send FFC payments where the final beneficiary account is based outside of the U.S. If this is the case, then the payment will bounce back or be stuck in the intermediary bank."

 

[fshore]

all foreign banks use intermediary banks for USD. that's not the same as for further credit to. For further credit to is when you send a transfer for example to a brokers account number with instructions to further credit another account.

 

[John Dee]

Good to know! Is there an option to specify intermediary bank info with TW transfer (via support?), or does he just leave it unspecified? Last time I checked, for Panama, or for any other country, there is no option to specify intermediary bank information with USD transfers.

Also check their page about FCC payments: For Further Credit (FFC) payments | TransferWise Help Centre

"A ’For Further Credit’ (FFC) payment is a transfer where the money is sent to the final beneficiary’s bank account via an intermediary bank.

Unfortunately, we cannot send FFC payments where the final beneficiary account is based outside of the U.S. If this is the case, then the payment will bounce back or be stuck in the intermediary bank."

Digging in posts history here, @xzars @fshore did you tried it ? Any success of sending funds to Panama with TW ? When sending EUR, there are just fields "Name of recipient" and "IBAN" nothing else, where to fill all beneficiary and intermediary bank account details, so it seems to be not-doable in my humble opinion. Please correct me, if I am wrong.

 

[fshore]

No, but you can't send EUR to Panama. You can send USD, unless you account is a for further credit to payment.

 

[John Dee]

I don't think is possible to send USD to Panamaniam bank with TransferWise, all of them are using intermediary banks and in TW app for sending USD you have just 2 fields : account number, routing number

 

[fshore]

Mah

I don't think is possible to send USD to Panamaniam bank with TransferWise, all of them are using intermediary banks and in TW app for sending USD you have just 2 fields : account number, routing number

Maybe you have to use the website to make swift transfer.
I've sent usd transfers by swift with tw to China. You don't have to specify intermediary bank, just supply the swift code.

 

[AMD]

Transfer Wise issue real account numbers with and without IBAN depending on what currency you open accounts for.