Finance and Monetary Policy in Panama #HogsAbroad #IntlHogs

On Monday, we went to the Banco National of Panama to learn about finance and monetary policy in Panama. The department we visited first had a control over the system called “La Camara de Compensacion.” The system has all the balance sheet information from 54 banks in the system.

When a bank experiences a bankruptcy, the bank can no longer participate in the system. However, the deposits that customers in that bank can be returned with funds that other banks have in the network. Therefore, the benefit to be in the network system is trust from customers.

 

In a lecture, the speaker mentioned that using US dollar as official and legal currency helped Panamanian economic grow stably, avoiding inflation caused by excess of currency. Because their local currency, balboas, is also made outside of the country, monetary policy does not exist in Panama. Instated, the government decides to keep or release some amount of USD according to its situation.

Then, we had a chance to have conversation with Eduardo, one of the UofA alumnus from Panama. He got double degree in Supply Chain Management and Finance, and is now working for a private bank in Panama.

He thinks that “Panama Paper” was some kind of attack to the country itself from outsiders, and it explains why it is called “Panama paper,” not by the name of institute or bank.

He also mentioned that Panama denied to sign a treaty by OECD, which might have triggered someone to leak the information. It was a great time to actually know what he does at work and to gain broader perspectives on global issues.

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Read more from Yuki at  https://yukiinpanama.wordpress.com/

Learn more about studying abroad as a Walton college student at: http://walton.uark.edu/global/

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