The Reading
The record, read for your family.
A private monthly report on the banks and counterparties your family uses: what changed in the filings, what it means for risk, and the questions to put to your advisers. Every figure is traced to a document filed with the report.
What a year includes.
A private report, monthly
- The first Reading covers the banks and counterparties you name
- Twelve reports of six to eight pages on your banks, your sector and your counterparties
- A private consultation with the editor before your first Reading
- Every figure traced to a document filed with the report, and every paper we cite checked against its registry
- A call with the editors each quarter
For a group and its board
- Everything in the Reading
- A half-day briefing each quarter
- Not sold to banks the Register covers: we take no payment from them
If the first Reading is not worth the year, we refund it in full. Every bank named in a Reading has forty-eight hours to reply before it goes out; we put the facts to the bank, never who the Reading is for. Nothing in a Reading is investment, legal or tax advice: it sets out the record and the questions, and your advisers answer them.
From the record to the decision.
Between December 2024 and July 2026, two listed Colombian groups and a Canadian bank sold their Panamanian banks, and regional buyers took them. On the regulator's own data, BAC held 13.8% of Panamá's local loans in August 2026 and is the second lender in the country; the buyer of Banistmo holds 12.0%; Banco General remains first at 17.8%. The books that changed hands shrank while they were for sale.
Each Reading closes with this table. The filing is the fact; the last column is a question for your advisers, never an answer from us.
| What the filing shows | What it means for risk | What a treasurer checks | What a family asks its adviser |
|---|---|---|---|
| What the filing showsPanamá has no deposit insurance, and Moody's finds no true lender of last resort in a fully dollarised system. IMF Executive Board concludes 2023 Financial System Stability Assessment with Panamá (Press Release 24/03) · International Monetary Fund · sha256 21cc623ce089 Moody's credit opinion on BAC International Bank, 1 April 2026 (hosted by BAC, uploaded July 2026) · Moody's via BAC Credomatic · sha256 d3586691515b | What it means for riskA run is met only by each bank's own liquidity and its parent's. | What a treasurer checksConcentration limits per banking group, not per licence: BAC and Multibank are now one limit. | What a family asks its adviserHow much of our operating cash could we move within a day if one bank stopped paying?1, 2 |
| What the filing showsPanamá's three leading private groups hold 43.6% of local loans (August 2026). Sistema Bancario Nacional: saldo de créditos al comercio local por banco, incl. préstamo local total (ene 2017–ago 2026) · Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá · sha256 0e795ed19722 | What it means for riskFewer lenders compete for each mid-market borrower. | What a treasurer checksWhether each line is committed or uncommitted, and whose credit committee approves it now. | What a family asks its adviserDo we have a second bank that would lend to us on the same terms?3 |
| What the filing showsThe buyer of Banistmo paid US$1.418 billion, partly with a syndicated loan to its holding and a one-year bridge loan to Banco La Hipotecaria. Grupo Cibest reports completion of the sale of Banistmo S.A. (Form 6-K) · US SEC / Grupo Cibest S.A. · sha256 bbca331adc77 Bladex co-leads financing package for the Banistmo acquisition (term loan and bridge) · Bladex via PR Newswire · sha256 67c163bfb5b1 | What it means for riskThe holding's debt is serviced by dividends from the banks it owns. | What a treasurer checksWhether dividends from the operating banks are the holding's only source of debt service. | What a family asks its adviserIs any of our exposure to the holding rather than to the bank? |
- Goldfajn and Olivares (2001), “Full Dollarization: The Case of Panama”, Economía. In Panama the absence of a lender of last resort pushed banks to secure foreign contingent funding, giving international banks an edge (about 55% of banking activity in 1998); low domestic rates owe partly to the opened financial system, and dollarization removed currency risk but not default risk. doi:10.1353/eco.2001.0003
- Komaromi et al. (2016), “Assessing Liquidity Buffers in the Panamanian Banking Sector”, IMF Working Papers. About half of Panamanian banks would need to adjust liquid assets to meet LCR standards, and in a severe foreign-funding stress some banks would exhaust buffers and a few face shortfalls, though most of those are solvent. doi:10.5089/9781475544824.001
- Martinez Peria and Mody (2004), “How Foreign Participation and Market Concentration Impact Bank Spreads: Evidence from Latin America”, Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking. Bank concentration is directly associated with higher spreads and costs, while foreign banks charge lower spreads than domestic banks, de novo entrants more so than banks that entered by acquisition. doi:10.1353/mcb.2004.0048
Redacted for publication: the full Reading names the parties, the documents and the dates behind each line, and carries the counterparty table for each type of client.
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Terms of sale: sold by Acta, LLC, 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles, CA 90067. Priced in US dollars, for one year, paid in advance. The first Reading is refunded in full on request if it is not worth the year. Readings are confidential to the subscriber and are not investment, legal or tax advice. Card payments are processed by Stripe.