Panama's Public Registry: How to Look Up a Company or a Property Online

Panama’s Public Registry (Registro Público de Panamá) was created by Law 13 of 1913 and has been an autonomous institution since Law 3 of 1999. It’s where companies, foundations, properties and the acts that affect them are recorded, and in its own words its job is to guarantee the authenticity of the documents, titles or acts that must be registered. Its systems work in Spanish, so the official names are kept below next to their meaning.

This isn’t legal advice. It’s what the Public Registry publishes on its site, checked on September 23, 2026. Some of its help pages predate the current portal; the up-to-date step-by-step is in the PDF guides the Registry itself publishes.

What you can do online

According to the Registry, it has already digitized the great majority of the procedures its users carry out. From its home page you reach:

• Servicios y Consultas Registrales: the portal to search, request certificates and file documents.
• Validación de documentos, to check a certificate.
• Consultas Agente Residente and Consultas Folio Suspendido: lookups on resident agents and suspended folios.
• Descarga Folios Suspendidos y Disueltos: the list of the dissolution process of suspended legal entities that started in 2026.
• Calculadora Registral and Alerta Registral (below).
• Guías Servicios Web: the 2026 step-by-step guides, in PDF, to create a user, follow filings, request certificates, file documents and correct a folio.

The portal isn’t only for people in Panama: during Carnival 2026, according to the Registry, it handled 14,802 filings, including national and international certificates, from people in 72 countries.

How to look up a company or a property

First, the account. The Registry lists it as the first requirement: an active user account. You create it with your full name, a username written without spaces —it can include numbers— and a password of at least 8 characters. According to the Registry, you can log in within 24 hours.

Then, the search. Inside Servicios y Consultas Registrales, the registry information lookup includes, among others:

Search	What it’s for
Búsqueda de Folios, Fincas o Fichas	A property or a legal entity. Corporations, foundations and foreign companies are under the Mercantil option
Búsqueda de Entradas	Following a document you filed
Búsqueda de Defectos	Seeing why a document was flagged with a defect
Tomos, Rollos y Microfichas	Records from earlier years

Results come as a PDF. The Registry doesn’t state on its pages whether searching has a cost; what it does make clear is that it requires the account.

Certificates: one per procedure

A certificate from the Registry is proof of what’s recorded about a company, a property, a movable asset or a foundation. Its 2026 request forms cover property or no-property certificates, company and movable-asset certificates, and foundation certificates. They’re requested online, with the account, or at any Registry office with the printed form.

Two things worth knowing:

• They’re single-use since March 1, 2025. The Registry’s reason: a certificate reused in several procedures may not reflect the latest updates. Two procedures, two certificates.
• There’s no published validity period. Whoever asks for it sets how recent it has to be, so ask before you request it.

What a filing costs

The Calculadora Registral gives an estimated value for each procedure, is free and doesn’t require logging in. For example, to incorporate a corporation (sociedad anónima) it shows a B/. 10 qualification fee and notes that B/. 300 of first annual franchise tax (tasa única) must be paid. The balboa is at par with the US dollar. Fees come from the schedule approved in 2013.

The Registry Alert

Alerta Registral is a subscription that notifies you in real time of movements or transactions on the folios you subscribe:

• It lasts one year and can be renewed.
• The first subscription is in person, with a form submitted and paid at the Liquidación window.
• It costs per folio, from B/. 15 down to B/. 8 depending on how many you subscribe.

For a property or a company you don’t handle often, it’s the way to find out if someone files something on it.

Where the offices are

The main office is on Vía España, calle 67-A Este, across from Hospital San Fernando, in Panama City, with switchboard 501-6000 and WhatsApp 6920-7731. The Registry also has eleven regional offices, most open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

If you’re setting up a company to operate in Panama, the Registry is one step: operating needs its own notice → Panamá Emprende and the operating notice.

Official sources (in Spanish)

• Public Registry of Panama — home page, with the online services.
• Frequently asked questions — Public Registry: account, searches and defects.
• Web services guides — Public Registry, 2026 edition.
• Single-use certificates — Public Registry.
• Fee calculator and Registry Alert — Public Registry.
• The portal during Carnival 2026 — Public Registry.
• Regional offices and contact — Public Registry.