Pope Francis has replaced five board members of the Vatican’s financial watchdog in his latest attempt to rehabilitate the troubled Vatican bank. The former board members of the Financial Information Authority still had two years to go before they were due to step down. The change comes after reports of clashes between board members and Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Vatican bank’
Former Vatican secretary of state in funds handling probe
Friday, May 23rd, 2014
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
Australia’s Pell to fix Vatican’s economy
Tuesday, February 25th, 2014
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
“Mum’s the word” as Pope and cardinals meet for third time
Friday, February 21st, 2014
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
Finance watchdog approves Vatican reforms, urges bank oversight
Friday, December 13th, 2013The 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
Vatican Bank finds over 100 suspicious transactions
Friday, December 13th, 2013
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
Vatican Bank risks blacklist for weak money laundering controls
Tuesday, December 10th, 2013
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
Vatican Bank names new director general
Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013
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
Vatican Bank issues unusual but ‘unsurprising’ report
Friday, October 4th, 2013
As the Vatican Bank took the unusual step of publishing an annual report for the first time in its 125-year history, its president said the most surprising thing was “how unsurprising it is”. “You see a rather conservatively managed financial institution safeguarding assets, investing in very conservative investments like government bonds and bank deposits,” said Read more
Arrested prelate tells magistrates of secret accounts in Vatican
Friday, September 20th, 2013
A prelate, who was earlier arrested for allegedly laundering Vatican money, told a magistrate that the Vatican department in charge of paying salaries and managing real estate acted improperly as a parallel bank. Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, 61, who is under investigation, said the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, known as APSA, allowed Read more