THE OECD and Panama have signed the CRS Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (CRS MCAA), in presence of OECD Deputy Secretary-General Masamichi Kono. Panama is the 98th jurisdiction to join the CRS MCAA, which is the prime international agreement for implementing the automatic exchange of financial account information under the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance.

By signing the CRS MCAA today, Panama is re-affirming its commitment to the automatic exchange of financial account information pursuant to the OECD/G20 Common Reporting Standard (CRS), with exchanges set to commence in September 2018. The signing of the CRS MCAA will allow Panama to activate bilateral exchange relationships with the other 97 jurisdictions that have so far joined the CRS MCAA.

Members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes are working together to monitor and review the implementation of the international standard for the automatic exchange of tax information.

At the signing ceremony, Deputy Secretary-General Masamichi Kono said: "I congratulate Panama on taking this very substantial step towards putting in place a truly global exchange network for the automatic exchange of financial account information. Your signing today puts Panama is an excellent position to fully deliver on its commitment to start CRS exchanges with all interested appropriate partners in September of this year."