Banking in Panama

I should have known better than to mention, in my last blog, that we had lived for a short while free of the Panamanian bureaucracy and were enjoying a tranquil existence as a result. Vengeance began last week with an enigmatic e-mail, in Spanish, from a functionary in the David branch of our bank asking me to report to the Boquete branch to complete some unfinished paperwork relating to our home mortgage. But let me go back a bit.

Our original construction loan, taken out before we left the States, was with Banistmo, which since has been bought out by HSBC. There was some mix-up in the filing of the final paperwork--maybe Banistmo's fault, maybe our lawyer's--who knows?--the correction of which would have resulted in our losing our 20-year tax exemption. So, after a year of trying to work things out, the only alternative appeared to be to refinance with another bank. The decision was made at Fatima's office in David, so, after a telephone call, she sent me to the Global Bank branch in David. This was early October 2008. I filled out some paperwork and was approved on the spot. Nine months later, i.e., in June 2009, the final papers were signed. Everything was shuffled back and forth between Global in David, Global in Panama City, Banistmo in Boquete, and Banistmo in Panama City, and then all over again when Banistmo was merged with HSBC. It was excruciating. Delays, lost paperwork, dozens of trips back and forth to David, hundreds of e-mails, hundreds of phone calls. I could write a book on what we went through. The closing itself, in June, with the aid of a translator/interpreter (who was the only competent person encountered in the long, sorry ordeal) took three hours and approximately five pounds of paperwork. But at last it was done. So I thought.

After a brief respite I undertook the chores of adding Larry to the Global account (since he wasn't with me when I opened it in David) and adding Derek in the event that anything happened to us as one never, ever wants to go through probate in Panama. (Everyone forms a corporation to purchase property because there is no tenancy by the entireties in Panama law, so all owners and heirs are written into the corporation documents to avoid probate.) When I approached the Boquete branch about adding Derek to the account, they said it would have to be done in David because that's where the account was. Exactly same bank, mind you, just a different branch. Not wanting to have to journey to David for every little banking matter, I asked if the account could be transferred to Boquete. At first I was told yes, then, during a subsequent visit, no. But we could open a new account in Boquete and close the one in David. Alrighty then, as Doc says, let's do it. Not unexpectedly, there were foul-ups in executing what should be a simple matter, and a number of weeks passed before this was accomplished. When I showed up to add Derek to the account, I was told that it would be easier to simply make him the beneficiary, so I signed a document to that effect. Then Larry was added in mid-July, after three trips by the two us to submit paperwork that they hadn't told us about on the previous trip(s). That's the history, in a nutshell.

So, in response to last week's e-mail about mortgage-related paperwork, I dutifully (there's that word again) reported to Ana at Global Bank in Boquete to see what it was all about. I first was told that there were three forms that had been completed but had not been signed by me--just an oversight. The three forms--a mortgage application, a personal profile, and a designation of beneficiary--were offered in blank form for my signature. I advised that I was confident I had signed all forms proffered and, furthermore, was not in the habit of signing blank forms. This provoked a telephone call to the e-mail originator in David, from whom it was learned that the three forms in question were, in fact, wholly missing from the file. I suggested that, given all the shuffling between David and Panama City, the missing forms probably resided at Global in the capital city. We couldn't connect with the appropriate person there, so I left it with Ana to try to run them down. After all, the mortgage was a done deal; Banistmo/HSBC had been paid off and my property tax exemption saved.

After I got home, however, I started worrying about the beneficiary form and, given the months of agony suffered at the hands of Panama banks, became sorely aggravated. I therefore e-mailed Carmen at the bank, an official in the Boquete branch with a private office, with whom I had met before on some other issue and whom I judged to be somewhat competent, and expressed my misgivings about the whole affair. She wrote back the next day:

"I do need you to please stop over at the Boquete Branch if possible today and if you could bring your passport and if your husband could come in with you I would really appreciated.
I cant find the forms or the copies of the passports and I do apologize for it. If you could please stop over and see me at my office so we can make copies and sign the required paperwork to add your husband into the accounts."

Now, in case you missed it, this is an issue separate and distinct from missing mortgage documents. It became apparent to me that, in the bank's search for the mortgage records, they had discovered that other records were missing, too. I flew down to the bank and marched into the office of the Manager, an imposing looking woman named Sra. Casta Castillo. After a very perfunctory "Buena dia," I thrust a copy of the e-mail exchanges at her and started in on having received no answer to the problem of the mortgage paperwork but having learned in the process that other paperwork was missing as well. I was deep into my spiel before realizing that she doesn't speak English. Flustered, she finally managed to get Ana and Carmen into her office and, after protracted discussion with them and a number of telephone calls to Global elsewhere, advised me, via Carmen, that Boquete had lost the paperwork on Larry and had lost the Derek-as-beneficiary form. The problem with the mortgage documents, on the other hand, related to the loan being personal while the property is owned by our corporation; no records were missing, but several needed to be altered to accurately reflect that. The beneficiary form needed by the mortgage department was one linking us personally to the corporation in terms of the mortgage. So we got it worked out, requiring two more trips and Larry's presence again, but not without my reminding them repeatedly that one issue came to light only because another had arisen and that their incompetency had threatened my son's eventually having access to our money.

So I've now dealt with three Panama banks, each one as bad as the others. And I've learned at least two things: never underestimate the fecklessness of Panama bank employees, and never put more money than you absolutely have to in a Panama bank. This is the Switzerland of America?????

During all this paper shuffling, I realized that our U.S. passports expire in January. They can be renewed only at the U.S. embassy in Panama City, which, with travel, will require two days, which, because of my impending Spanish classes, will have to be done right away. So we're off Monday the 21st to Panama City for another round of bureaucracy.

Just shoot on up here amongst us . . . .