THE CORRUPTION  scandals leading to the jailing of the president of Odebrecht and many of his executives triggered  the exit of the US Citibank from the financing scheme of  line 2 of the Panama Metro in 2016.

Other banks who had pledged to support the project followed suit  leaving  the financing of the project on shaky ground reports La Prensa.

The financing structure originally proposed by the consortium was shared by Citibank, the

Japanese banks Mizuho and the Bank of TokyoMitsubishi and the German Deutsche Bank.

Economy and Finance Minister Dulcidio De La Guardia told La Prensa  that "it was a syndicated loan led by Citibank and the whole syndicate went out...This happened last year."

The consortium is negotiating a new structure with two banks. The talks have advanced and, according to De La Guardia, are pending final approval.

The project is 33 percent complete and is a priority for the government to finish on time because  of the expected  flood of visitors to  the World Youth Conference in 2019. Including Pope Francis.