Fintech and crowdfunding among Cortizo and Roux’s presidential proposals
26 abril 2019

PANAMA

On May 5, Panama will go to the polls to elect its next president and future national legislators for the period 2019-2024. Seven presidential candidates will compete in the elections, but only two have a realistic chance of winning: Laurentino Cortizo (Partido Republicano Democrático) and Rómulo Roux (Cambio Democrático). According to local pollsters, Cortizo is set to win 38,6% of the votes, while Roux holds 21% of the electorate. The ruling party, meanwhile, Partido Panameñista, has little chance of retaining the presidency. Since the return of democracy to Panama in 1989, no candidate put forward by the incumbent government has ever won the presidential elections.

Both Cortizo and Roux outlined measures in their manifestos to strengthen new financial industries. Cortizo says he would seek to establish a “technical roundtable” to the end of drafting up a Fintech law, and would promote the use of digital platforms in the financial sector. Roux’s proposals, meanwhile, were less specific, but broadly aimed at creating policies to consolidate the financing climate for digital entrepreneurship or crowdfunding.

Both presidential candidates, then, have a regulatory agenda that includes a focus on digital platforms, which they will be able to implement once the next administration begins July 1. The overlapping of their agendas will make it easier for whoever wins to push forward measures to regulate the new digital financing platforms – whether for crowdfunding in particular or for the Fintech industry in general.

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