There are about 150 banks in Panama and they come in several flavors. One is the offshore bank that can only do business with entities not in Panama. There are banks that can do business with those offshore as well as those entities within Panama.

If you are not living here and just walk in to a bank on the corner I doubt you will get an account opened no matter what country you are from. If you own or rent a home here then things are different. You should have a cell phone number, a regular house phone number, a mailing address (mail does not get delivered to your house in Panama, you need a mail box), a good reason as to what you are doing in Panama like being retired, a bank reference from your home country (states how long you have had an account, average balance and that you are in good standing), reference letter from local people who know you, and a reference letter from lawyer or accountant back home. Then add in your passport and drivers license and you should be good to go with a letter explaining your source of funds such as commissions, savings, proceeds from house sale, etc. It would be a real bad idea to try to open an account with a cash deposit instead use a wire transfer from your hometown bank. Do not make any substantial cash deposits, as this would be a warning flag. Checks from USA will take 3-4 weeks to clear. You are not allowed to write Panama checks outside of the country. They will give you a Visa or MasterCard Debit Card readily with your account. Most banks have Internet Banking.

If you get a residency first before opening the account it will be easier and all these references may not be needed. More on Visas, Residency and Citizenship can be found here.

A Panama Law Firm can open up a Panama Bank Account before you are living here. They require a bank reference letter; general business reference letter and notarized drivers license copy and a notarized and apostilled passport copy. If you appear at the bank in person all you need is the reference letters and carry your passport and driver license.

Panama Corporate and Panama Foundation Bank Accounts are best for privacy. The Panama Corporations are anonymous bearer share corporations. The owner's names are not in any database and the government does not even know who owns them. When you wire in and out of a Corporation or Foundation bank account the wire information never includes your name even if you are the signatory on the bank account, just the name of the corporation and account number appears.

Panama Banks offer accounts in Euros, USD and Pound Sterling. You can have savings and checking accounts.

Privacy and Banking in Panama

Panama has serious bank secrecy laws. Your money here is safe from lawyers and others who wish to abusively take it away from you. Collecting a civil debt from another country in Panama is close to impossible, don't plan on it happening. A government trying to get at your money has numerous difficulties. First it must be a national government in a treaty with Panama. Next it has to involve a criminal case on file in their court system where the crime is also a crime in Panama. The equivalent of their Justice Department contacts the State department and through their consulate in Panama papers are filed according to the MLAT (Mutual legal Assistance Treaty) by their consulate in Panama with the Panama Government. The papers are reviewed and questions in return are filed along with requests for more information. Thus the dance begins and can last years. If the request is lawful the information will eventually be supplied. Sometimes the country which the bank is located in may themselves get interested thinking a crime may have been committed in their country let us say, and they may seize the records and keep them for a long time while they do their investigation.

The Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) is a process that the USA would like to play more of but other countries are generally sick and tired of it and do not like it at all. If you are a major criminal and they are after you they will eventually have the bank records and even get the money seized

In Summary

There are banks and then there are banks in Panama. Some are better than others. There is no FDIC or FSLIC in Panama thus no bank insurance. The Panama only banks are the smallest ones. They may have a building with their name on it but remember that Bank of America does not own its own building bearing their name. Make sure you get recommended to a bank before you open a bank account in Panama, don't just pick one.