Transparency in Price of Remittances

The Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA), the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) and World Bank today (Thursday 2 February) launched enviacentroamerica.org, a free online tool that can be used to compare and make transparent the costs of remittances from the United States to six Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.

A press release from the IDB states that:
"The website provides detailed information, which is and updated monthly, on how much it cost to send money from the U.S. to Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic. Costs are calculated based on amounts of $200 and $500.

More on this topic

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January 2011

Resident agents should require their customer satisfactory evidence of identity or of that of the final beneficiary.

The National Assembly passed Bill 275 in third debate, regulating the information requested by resident agents or lawyers in order to strengthen the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Panama: Website with import costs

January 2009

The Government of Panama inaugurated the Public Administration Transparency Module, on the web site of the National Customs Authority.

The commissioning of this new tools will allow Panamanians or foreigners to review the information contained in the import and export declarations, without the need for a password.

Corruption Getting Worse in Central America

December 2011

With the exception of Honduras, which reported a slight improvement, all countries in the region reported significant drops in the new edition of the Corruption Perception Index, by Transparency International.

In 2011 Costa Rica remained the best positioned in Central America, but fell from position 41 to 50, followed by El Salvador, which fell from 73 to 80, Panama (73 to 86), Guatemala (91 to 120) , Honduras (climbed from 134 to 129) and Nicaragua (dropped from 127 to 134).

Lack of Fiscal Transparency A Threat to Panama

March 2012

The International Finance Corporation could cancel loans to companies operating in Panama, if the country does not meet the required standards on exchanging tax information.

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