VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service
[MONEYVAL’s first evaluation report on the Holy See – Council of Europe]
Vatican City, (VIS) – Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, under secretary for Relations with State, today presented a briefing to journalists in the Holy See Press Office concerning the publication of the first Mutual Evaluation Report on the Holy See and on Vatican City State (“MONEYVAL Report”) regarding adherence to the 40 + IX FATF recommendations against money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT). Msgr. Balestrero was head of the Holy See delegation to the plenary session of MONEYVAL held in Strasbourg, France, on 4 July.
Extracts from Msgr. Balestrero’s English-language presentation are given below:
“Vatican City State has a very small territory, with a small population, a very low level of domestic crime and no market economy. It is not a financial centre and its financial activities are meant to support its works of charity and of religion. However the Holy See enjoys a recognised moral voice and in this sense is deeply connected not only with its immediate neighbours, but with all countries of the world. Moreover the Holy See, as primarily responsible for the universal mission of the Church, has a special ability – even duty – to guide and orient Catholic religious organisations throughout the world. While those organisations exist within their own civil jurisdictions and are bound to follow the laws of those jurisdictions on AML/CFT issues, it is important that the Holy See use its moral authority to raise maximum awareness about the far too frequent transnational crime of money laundering and the financing of terrorism”.
Beginning along the path and first accomplishments
“There has always been a clear determination to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as a legal system that already had several of the elements necessary to tackle ML/FT problems.
“At the end of 2010, we passed an AML/CFT law and requested evaluation in February 2011 by MONEYVAL. Our law came into force on 1 April 2011. Our Financial Intelligence Authority was operational by June. In November 2011, we received our first MONEYVAL on-site visit. The team of our evaluators was widely considered to be perhaps the strongest team MONEYVAL had ever assembled. It included the president, the secretary and an administrator of MONEYVAL, the president of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, two senior financial experts and a professor of international law”.
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