Tower Bank - Bussiness account

[SilverNeo]

Hi

I'm thinking of opening a bank account with Tower Bank in Panama for my corporation and I was curious does anyone have any experience?

https://www.towerbank.com/en

 

[JackAlabama]

i stay far away from panama banks (as a long time resident). I know⁠ this bank before it become "crypto" and had a few other encounters. Experience on my⁤ own was horrendous or worse 😉

 

[SilverNeo]

Can you please provide a bit⁠ more details horrendus in what way I'm just curious? 🙂

 

[JackAlabama]

endless paper nonsense, asking questions to no end.

 

[SilverNeo]

Tnx for‌ the answer so death by paperwork 🙂

 

[Sols]

Towerbank is decent. Hard to comment on your chances of success. It depends on what‌ your business does and what kind of services you need.

But if you're accepted, working‍ with them is largely fine. You'll run into occasional language barrier issues and they ask⁠ a lot of questions for wire transfers, which is the case for any Panamanian bank⁤ since it's still viewed as a high risk territory.

 

[OKboomer]

So what banks do you use⁠ as resident, if not Panamanian? Also, for real estate transactions in Panama, is a foreign⁤ bank better than a local one then?
Have you dealt with MMG? Their onboarding process⁣ seems excrutiating too
They position themselves as cryptofriendly and promise a conversion of USDT at okayish︃ rate. Hence I looked at them.

Also, maybe it is a naive question: but i︄ thought there are fewer questions if you are already operating in a high risk territory?︅ Like, reputed countries may care more about reputation, but if you are already deemed dirty︆ / high risk, would you not at least compensate that by being more no-nonsense?

 

[Sols]

It's the⁤ opposite.

Let's take two examples.

Example 1: A German company with an account with ING⁣ in Luxembourg sending 2 million USD to pay a supplier in UK with a bank⁢ account in UK. No one raises an eyebrow. The correspondent banks in New York just︀ let it pass through. All involved countries are low-risk. It's probably just a routine payment.︁ Billions flow between the countries every day.

Example 2: A Panamanian company with a bank︂ account in Panama sends 10,000 USD to a company in Belize with a bank account︃ in Seychelles. All involved countries are considered high risk. All eyes are on the transaction.︄ This transaction is at high risk of being fraudulent, tax evasion, money laundering, bribe, et︅ cetera. The bank in Panama asks the payer for purpose of the transaction. If they︆ release it, the correspondent in New York might follow up with more questions. If they︇ also release it, the transaction might be held by the recipient's bank correspondent. Now the︈ recipient is asked to explain/justify the transaction.

If you transact in USD, EUR, and such︉ currencies, your money passes through US/EU/other and is subject to checks by banks there. A︊ bank in Panama has practically no financial sovereignty since USD is de facto currency of︋ Panama. (The balboa/PAB is just USD dressed up in conquistador cosplay.)

 

[JackAlabama]

I have a few other residencies and dont spent (much) time in⁠ Pa anyway. The usual banks mentioned here but mostly stablecoins and bitcoin.

use usd cash⁤ or stablecoin/bitcoin. Better to make such deals final and let the banks rest in peace.⁣
no.
one would think but its the contrary. Its outrageous. The stricter︅ the country the looser the banks. 😉

 

[OKboomer]

of course i dream of the day‍ banks die out of redundancy (without crypto turning into an even more totalitarian version of⁠ finance in the meantime...)
but regarding stablecoins/bitcoin, are you suggesting you can use that to⁤ buy real estate in panama?
we researched quite extensively and talked to many different sellers⁣ (both private and banks) and none of them accepted stables or btc for transactions.
where/how do you find deals that accept crypto in panama?

 

[JohnLocke]

Unfortunately, that has also been⁤ my experience. It’s not as easy to pay for things with crypto as it’s sometimes⁣ made out to be. I’ve managed to do it in some cases in certain countries,⁢ but very rarely, and unfortunately, it’s nowhere near easy enough to sustain everyday life without︀ cash or a credit card.

 

[JackAlabama]

well i talk pre-covid, was very easy to do⁣ back in these days, agents were abound. banks there are not ideal to talk to⁢ and are best avoided as gringo.
Maybe they tried to clean up that swamp in︀ the meantime, so maybe its less likely today.
But Id not buy tho there, its︁ a bad market.

 

[SilverNeo]

Does anyone have a reliable person how can assist with opening an account with tower‌ bank? (for a fee of course) I have 3 EMI but I would like one‍ bank account as well.

 

[SilverNeo]

Anyone?

 

[JackAlabama]

well yeah, as already mentioned look elsewhere.
The silence‌ here is helpful for you not wasting endless time in the panama banking swamp.

 

[Clank]

You can contact them on the website and they‌ will open the account. You don't need any special contact.

 

[SilverNeo]

I tried this the person's English‍ was so terrible that made it very difficult furthermore emails were sent in a mix⁠ of Spanish and English as 1 email would be English then the next Spanish depending⁤ on the person sending the email.

So I would prefer to work with a representative⁣ so I can make this smoother.

 

[SilverNeo]

No good‍ Crypto banks unless you have 1M+ and want to pay crazy fees.

 

[Houdini]

serious,why not use ChatGPT to translate and write your e-mails, if they agree⁠ to open the account by communicating by e-mail you can be fine doing it this⁤ way!

 

[SilverNeo]

Yea will take this approach I prefer Grok over chat GPT⁠ but the same thing