This was confirmed by AIF director, Francesco De Pasquale, who had criticised the new laws in recent months
Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City
The new Vatican anti-money laundering law which came into force last January provides “a more precise and complete institutional system” in comparison to Moneyval’s requests. The fact that such a comment on the new financial transparency laws – which have sparked serious controversy over the past few months – should come from the director of the AIF (the Vatican Financial Information Authority), Francesco De Pasquale, is significant.
The Vatican’s transparency law (No. 127), written by lawyer Marcello Condemi towards the end of 2010 and enforced in April 2011, was meant to undergo some modifications to help it meet international criteria for inclusion in the OECD’s white list of financially virtuous countries. These modifications, which were made hastily in juts three weeks last December, by a workgroup led by American lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, came into force on 25 January this year. The President of the AIF, Cardinal Nicora, Gotti Tedeschi and De Pasquale himself, held that in some points, the new law excessively scaled down the AIF’s power and as such was seen as a step backwards. This was the last battle fought by the President of the Vatican bank (IOR) before the no-confidence vote which led to his sudden dismissal.
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