Research Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, was quoted in CityAM discussing Panama's placement in the new World Economic Forum ratings on the soundness of banks:

The WEF report shows that Panama has the twelfth-soundest banks in the world, way ahead of the UK, which languishes in 89th place. Why is this is relevant to the Scottish independence debate?

Research director of the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), Sam Bowman, explains:

This is good news for Alex Salmond: Panama uses the US dollar without a currency union, and the ‘Panama option’ may be his best bet for an independent Scotland. Today’s results suggest that emulating Panama by ‘Sterlingising’ without a currency union could give an independent Scotland a remarkably robust financial system because Scotland’s banks could not depend on an unlimited central bank lender of last resort.

Alex Salmond has already said Scotland will keep using the pound if there's a yes vote, adding "there is literally nothing anyone can do" about it. For its part, the ASI has offered a helping hand to show how an independent Scotland might arrange its monetary policy in the face of hostility to a formal currency union.

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