BlocksInform
Panama's president, laurentino cortizo, said he will not sign the cryptocurrency bill recently approved by the country's national assembly in its current form. Cortizo stated that one of his main concerns about the bill is the position he takes regarding money laundering and cryptography activities. Cortizo may approve some parts of the Bill while denying others.
Panama’s President Considers Crypto Bill Veto
Laurentino Cortizo, the president of Panama, has announced his opinion regarding the recently approved cryptocurrency bill, and how it might be too lax when it comes to dealing with unlawful activities like money laundering in the sector. While speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Latin America conference in Panama City, Cortizo :
If I’m going to answer you right now with the information that I have, which is not enough, I will not sign that law.
Furthermore, cortizo explained that he and his government should be "very careful" if the proposed crypto bill has provisions dealing with money laundering activities, make the point that they are very important to panama.
Panama allows the President to have veto power over bills introduced by the National Assembly, and Cortizo could use this attribution to postpone the bill in its current form. However, Cortizo stated that he and his lawyers are still revising the legislation to make a decision.
Panama’s Crypto Law
Panama started its cryptocurrency regulation journey last year, when Gabriel Silva, a national representative, introduced a crypto bill with a proposal that aimed to modernize the country and bring it up to par with other countries in the area. The bill, which faced some changes during its discussion, establishes pivotal concepts about crypto, blockchain, and virtual asset service providers.
In addition, the approved version of the bill introduces blockchain as a tool to improve the transparency of state spending, like other projects presented already in latam. This would involve the gradual migration of public documents to blockchain.
Another important proposal of the bill is the digitisation of the identification process, with identifiers issued in the process of publication on a public blockchain. Cortizo could take some of the adopted sections and make them law, and veto other parts of the bill. To wrap up, Cortizo said:
From what I have heard, it is a good law. However, we have a robust financial system here in Panama, and one of the things I'm looking for is global cryptoasset regulation.
What do you think about the opinion of the president of Panama regarding the passed crypto bill? Share with us in the comments section below.
