Our firm can assist you in opening an account at a Panama brokerage house, with full online trading facilities in major world markets.

We refer clients who require state of the art, real time market access to a European-owned brokerage house in Panama which welcomes accounts from offshore companies and focuses on cutting edge technology. They offer, for example, from a stocks and options point of view:

• US American Stock Exchange
• US NASDAQ
• US New York Stock Exchange
• UK London Stock Exchange
• France Euronext Paris
• Germany Xetra
• Switzerland Swiss Exchange
• Switzerland Virt-X

And many other International Exchanges are available by secure online chat or telephone.

For Forex and Commodities trading they offer:

• Live trading of over 120 FX crosses on spreads as low as 2 pips
• Leveraged stocks from 19 exchanges around the world with CFDs
• Easy investing in stock indices with CFD Index-trackers
• Invest in Gold and Silver on live tradable prices
• Hundreds of online futures contracts on low commissions

I should add that this brokerage house is tried and tested, and works well. I’ve personally met the owners and they are good people.

If you don’t want to bother with any of that, they can arrange managed accounts with a conservative, through to a leveraged, growth program. These would need an investment of around $100,000 minimum. Our firm tends to point clients in the direction of European asset managers (Austrian or Swiss for example) if they require portfolio management rather than sophisticated online access.

In order to open accounts, brokerages will, of course, need the standard due diligence package of a financial statement, notarised passport copy, and bank and professional references. Can this be avoided? The answer is yes, it is usually possible to increase the confidentiality of the beneficial owner through the use of trust arrangements, while still allowing online access for the day trading and via a stand-alone prepaid debit card. But this does bring with it a new set of complications and costs. So clients should seriously consider whether it is really necessary.

For the “average Joe” who wants to move a middle-class-sized portfolio offshore, the protection offered by taking an offshore company with nominee directors and bearer shares, then mixing and matching accounts across several jurisdictions, all of which offer statutory bank secrecy, is more than enough. Bank references may be addressed “to whom it may concern” so there is no direct paper trail.

A typical package we might put together for a client would be as follows:

• Panama corporation
• Nominee directors
• Bearer shares
• Registered office
• Power of attorney to beneficial owner
• European bank account in EUR, USD and all other major currencies
• Internet banking
• Debit or credit card
• Secure offshore tunneling proxy, including support
• One of the following:
• o Opening of Panamanian offshore trading account with specs, as above; or
• o Opening of European-managed account at a private bank

For further information including pricing, please do not hesitate to contact us.