“Panama needs a bank with Panamanian capital,” says Federico Humbert, the conservative 74-year-old president of the country’s biggest bank, formed at the beginning of this year when Banco General and its local rival Banco Continental merged.

With a market share of more than 15 per cent (in terms of total assets) and more than 35 per cent in sectors such as mortgage finance, the new bank is big enough to hold its own amid the hectic rationalisation that has gripped Panama’s financial sector over the past few months.