The Securities Market Superintendency (SMV) published Opinion 08-26 in Official Gazette No. 30646 of October 30, 2026, on technological facilitation of access to securities traded in foreign markets. The administrative position responds to a query from a law firm about a Panamanian technology services company that would offer users in Panama an interface to buy, hold and sell shares listed on U.S. exchanges through a foreign intermediary supervised in its home jurisdiction.

The SMV analyzes articles 3, 4, 49, 50, 74 and 255 of the Consolidated Text of the Securities Market Law. It concludes that the exclusive provision of a digital interface connecting the user with the foreign intermediary does not, in itself, constitute an activity requiring a broker-dealer or investment adviser license, provided the entity does not receive funds or hold securities in custody, does not provide advice or recommendations, does not maintain an order book and transmits the user's instructions without exercising discretion. The query describes the tool as a passive digital routing interface.

The view has express limits. The opinion recalls that numeral 10 of article 49 includes offering and opening investment accounts in the definition of a broker-dealer, and that article 74 lists recommending the opening of accounts with domestic or foreign broker-dealers among the activities of an investment adviser. The conclusion is therefore conditional on the entity not taking part in opening accounts, not promoting securities market services in Panama and not being paid for it. The SMV adds that the intermediary's license in its home country does not authorize it to operate in or from Panama.

For financial technology companies and firms structuring digital investment products, the opinion offers a reference on where the technology service ends and regulated activity begins. The most sensitive point appears to be advertising: the SMV asks for the specific conditions under which the feature is announced to be assessed, so that it is understood as promotion of a technology service and not as an offer of securities services.

The position was issued solely on the facts described by the applicant and preserves the SMV's powers to assess the activities actually carried out in or from Panama. Nexo Capital will follow how this view is applied in the local market.

Research assisted by Sentinel, with editorial verification of official sources. Discover Legislat.ai