ROME
National Catholic Reporter
by John L Allen Jr on Jun. 19, 2012 NCR Today
ROME — If a report in Italy’s leading daily is accurate, it’s a rare bit of good news lately for the Vatican: Apparently, the Vatican is poised to pass a looming European anti-money laundering evaluation, touted by friends and foes alike as the first real measure of whether Benedict XVI’s financial reforms are for real.
According to the June 19 story in Corriere della Sera, evaluators from Moneyval, the European anti-money laundering task force, are set to give the Vatican a score of only “partially compliant” or “non-compliant” on just eight of its 16 “key and core” benchmarks. That’s enough for the Vatican to avoid being considered a problem state, which requires low scores on ten of the standards.
If a country drops below that threshold, it typically faces a more rigid review for “high-risk states” led by the Financial Action Task Force, considered the leading global body in the fight against money laundering.
While Moneyval does not issue an overall verdict of “pass” or “fail”, many observers informally consider avoiding that process as a pass. Countries which have recently been subjected to the aggressive review include Bolivia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria and Turkey.
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