VATICAN CITY
The Guardian (UK)
Reuters in Vatican City
The Guardian, Monday 19 May 2014
The number of reports of suspicious financial transactions at the Vatican leapt to 202 in 2013 from six the previous year, its Financial Information Authority (AIF) said on Monday, attributing the rise to keener vigilance prompted by reforms at the scandal-ridden Vatican bank.
Since 2010, the Vatican has been enacting legislation to bring its bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), in line with international standards on financial transparency.
The AIF said the bulk of the suspicious transaction reports it had received involved the bank, but declined to give specific numbers or percentages. Five were considered serious enough to be referred to the Vatican’s prosecutor.
“We are not perfect yet, we are not super-good yet,” Rene Bruelhart, the Swiss lawyer who heads the AIF, told a news conference. “We are more than satisfied that the direction we are going is good, but there is still quite a bit of way to go.”
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