Editing Economy of Panama (section)

===Financial services===

Panama has a substantial financial services sector and no central bank to act as a [[lender of last resort]] to rescue banks that get in trouble. As a result, Panamanian banks are very conservatively run, with an average [[capital adequacy ratio]] of 15.6% in 2012, nearly double the legal minimum.<ref name="ECLAC12">{{cite web | url=http://www.cepal.org/publicaciones/xml/6/46986/Panama-completo-web-ing4sep12.pdf | title=Macroeconomic Report - Panama | date=June 2012 | publisher=United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean | access-date=2014-08-20 | archive-date=2014-08-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821070549/http://www.cepal.org/publicaciones/xml/6/46986/Panama-completo-web-ing4sep12.pdf | url-status=dead }}</ref> The sector grew up providing trade finance for trade passing through the Canal, and later evolved into [[money laundering]] for the drug trade under Noriega. Since the [[2008 financial crisis]], the country has been trying to shake off its reputation [[Panama as a tax haven|as a tax haven]], signing [[Double taxation treaty|double taxation treaties]] with many (mostly OECD) countries and in April 2011 a treaty on the exchange of financial information with the United States.<ref name="ECLAC12" />