September 11, 2011: COACECSS in Spanish is "Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito" a Cooperative for savings and credit.  In the US, we call these "Panama Credit Unions." Panama Offshore Legal Services, Attorneys at Law, claims the following on their web site:

• "According to some professionals in the industry, credit unions are considered to be more secure and less risky than banks for several reasons."
• Beware of weasel words. The don't cite ANY sources!  Could the professional be the janitor who cleans the building!
• "Currently, many credit unions are paying as much as 4% interest on basic savings accounts, up to 6% interest on educational savings accounts, up to 8% interest on 5 year time deposits (CD’s) of at least $100,000, and as much as 9% interest on retirement savings accounts. They can afford to pay higher interest rates to their depositors because they earn higher interest on their loans, and most credit unions have a very low loan default rate since they make small loans, require co-signers, and require direct debits from borrowers’ salaries for payments."
• =>We don't see how this makes a loan safe.  We think the ONLY safe loan is one that has FDIC insurance or other US Government backing.
• Although most Panama credit unions restrict membership to Panamanian residents.... there are some credit unions that do accept outsiders, and foreigners are often permitted to open accounts with those credit unions.
• =>There is the pitch.  They probably get a lucrative fee to introduce you to a banker who will take your money with the promise to pay a high interest rate.  Why does this remind us of loan brokers selling loans to people who couldn't afford to make the payments at the top of the housing bubble?
  

WARNING!!!!  If this was a safe bet, you can be sure Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Chase and other banks would lend the money to this credit union for 9% rather than make 15 year home loans to people in the US for around 3.5%.