Pope Fills Key Job at Troubled Vatican Bank

By Rachel Donadio
The New York Times
June 15, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/world/europe/pope-fills-key-job-at-troubled-vatican-bank.html?_r=1&

ROME — Three months into his papacy, Pope Francis took his first significant step on Saturday toward making changes at the troubled Vatican Bank, naming a trusted prelate to fill a key vacancy in an indication that the pope intends to keep a close watch on the institution.

In a statement, the Vatican said Francis had approved of the nomination of Msgr. Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as interim prelate of the bank, a top post that allows him access to its inner workings.

The appointment is Francis’ first for the Vatican Bank. The bank’s reluctance to reveal its client list has put it under intense pressure in recent years to meet European norms to prevent money laundering as a condition for using the euro.

Monsignor Ricca, who manages the Vatican residence where the pope has chosen to live as well as others there, will report to a committee of cardinals led by the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and will be present at all board meetings, the statement said.

In one of his final acts as pope, Benedict XVI in February named Ernst von Freyberg, 54, a German aristocrat and industrialist, as the first non-Italian president of the bank, nine months after Mr. Von Freyberg’s predecessor, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was ousted in a boardroom coup after intense internal power struggles.

The position of prelate had been vacant since 2011, when Msgr. Piero Pioppo left the job to become the Vatican’s ambassador to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea.

In an interview last month, Mr. von Freyberg said he was intent on making sure that the bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion, met international transparency and compliance norms.

Last year, an initial report by Moneyval, a monitoring agency under the Council of Europe, said the bank was still lagging in customer due diligence and the reporting of suspicious transactions. Mr. von Freyberg said that the bank had flagged seven suspicious transactions through May of this year, and six in 2012.

The Vatican must submit a new progress report to Moneyval this fall.

In 2012, the bank had total assets of about $9.5 billion under management, most of it invested in government bonds, and turned a net profit of $155.5 million, up from an average of $92 million between 2009 and 2012.