Reform of Vatican finances since 2010

created the Autorita di Informazione Finanzaria (Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA)) as the financial intelligence unit (FIU) for the HS/VCS and AML/CFT supervisor

On 24 February 2011, His Eminence Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of State, wrote to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, requesting that the Holy See (including Vatican City State) (HS/VCS) become subject to the evaluation and follow up procedures of MONEYVAL.

The IOR launched a process in November 2010 (in advance of the enactment of AML/CFT legislation) to review its client database.

The HS/VCS authorities have come a long way in a very short period of time

Money laundering has been fully criminalised in accordance with the FATF standards although effectiveness of application has yet to be demonstrated as there have been no investigations, prosecutions or convictions for money laundering.

The IOR is the larger of the two financial institutions with 33,404 accounts being operated as at 30 November 2011.

Pope Francis approved the new governing statute of the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (Autorità di Supervisione e Informazione Finanziaria – ASIF)

we have decided to establish a Commission for Reference on the Institute for the Works of Religion that will gather accurate information on the legal status and various activities of the Institute

In this framework and in implementation of the Monetary Convention between Vatican City State and the European Union of 17 December 2009, for the said State I have approved

I establish the Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) indicated in Art. 33 of the

Italian financial police made the seizure Tuesday as a precaution and prosecutors placed the chairman and another official of the Institute for Religious Works under investigation for alleged mistakes linked to violations of Italy's anti-laundering laws.

In a statement, the Vatican said it had been working for some time to make its finances more transparent

following suspicions raised by the Bank of Italy over two attempted transfers

closed the accounts of three thousand customers

with a team of thirty to check every single account for twelve months. Now after more than sixteen thousand accounts checked so diligently

We closed three thousand accounts since I became President, two thousand six hundred were so called dormant accounts.

Then we closed 400 accounts of lay people, those were perfectly fine accounts

IOR has been associated with a number of scandals, we wanted to know the facts about them.

nearly every rumor surrounding IOR was not true

has blocked the accounts of more than 2,000 individual and institutional clients and ended around 3,000 “customer relationships”

The closing of the accounts led to an outflow of funds amounting to €44m

The authorities have a generally good high-level understanding of money laundering

The HS/VCS was rated compliant or largely compliant with 8 of the 16 Core and Key Recommendations.

The results in court are modest

appear rather minimal. Arguably, they are not proportionate and dissuasive.

The Holy See, including Vatican City State has received a positive assessment in the First "Regular Follow-up Report" by the MONEYVAL Committee

This is the first application of the legislation introduced in December 2018, within the more general framework of the adaptation of Vatican legislation to international standards for combating money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes.