It was possibly a watershed moment in Holy See media relations. The scene was the Sala Stampa of the Holy See some 10 days ago. Australian Cardinal George Pell was presenting the New Economic Framework for the Holy See, a document which outlines proposed major reforms not only to IOR (the Vatican bank) and to Read more
A new president has been announced for the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, as it was revealed that the institution’s 2013 net profit had plunged. Some 3000 accounts have been also purged from the bank in the last year, with almost 400 not meeting stricter client criteria, requiring a close link with the Church. French financier Jean-Baptiste Read more
Former Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is reportedly being investigated over handling of funds from Vatican accounts. According to German tabloid Bild Zeitung, approval was given for 15 million euros to be transferred from the Vatican bank to an Italian television production company, later identified as Lux Vide. The company is owned by Read more
Pope Francis, Monday, started to reform the Vatican’s scandal-plagued financial system by announcing a new Secretariat for the Economy. The secretariat, a new co-ordination structure for economic and administrative affairs of the Holy See and Vatican, will be headed by Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell. Cardinal Pell will have authority over all economic and administrative activities with Read more
A third meeting of Pope Francis with his international Council of eight cardinals has ended without specific details being made public. Among the items under consideration were financial matters and the reform of the Vatican bureaucracy, and, according to La Stampa, Vatican Spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi told journalists, the Pope’s advisors, yesterday, presented their initial Read more
The Vatican has made significant progress in financial reforms but still risks being used for money laundering unless it strengthens controls, a European watchdog said on Thursday. The 30-page report by Moneyval, a monitoring committee of the Council of Europe, is expected to add impetus to Pope Francis’s efforts to clean up the Vatican’s finances Read more
The Vatican Bank has unearthed more than 100 suspicious payments this year after starting full-scale checks on its customers for the first time to crack down on money laundering, up from six last year, said an official knowledgeable about the cleanup effort. The Los Angeles Times quoted a bank official who requested anonymity because he Read more
The Vatican Bank can be blacklisted by the international finance community after investigators found poor anti-money laundering controls in place. The bank is being probed by Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s watchdog which monitors standards in finance. If the watchdog rules against the Institute for the Works of Religion, as the Vatican Bank is formally Read more
The Vatican bank named Rolando Marranci, a consultant brought in earlier this year to help oversee compliance, as director general as the troubled financial institution tries to transform itself after being hit by scandal. Rolando Marranci had worked for Promontory Financial Group advising the Institute for Religious Works on cleaning up its accounts when he Read more