VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
John L. Allen Jr. | Dec. 12, 2013
Europe’s top financial transparency experts say that “much work has been done in a short time” under Pope Francis to promote reform, but new rules to bring the Vatican in line with international standards still have to be tested in practice.
Until the new systems are implemented and seen to be working, those experts say, the Vatican still risks being used for money laundering.
In particular, evaluators say it’s “surprising” that a new financial watchdog unit created in 2010 under Benedict XVI and strengthened by Francis still has not carried out formal inspections of either the Vatican bank or the other main financial department in the Vatican, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), though it notes internal reviews of accounts in those two entities are ongoing.
According to evaluators, the watchdog unit, the Financial Information Authority, needs “more trained and experienced staff” to handle its responsibilities of flagging suspect transactions and approving outfits that want to do business in the Vatican.
That office, the report said, needs to recruit “appropriately skilled professionals quickly” in order to be able to exercise real oversight.
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