VATICAN CITY
Financial Times

The Vatican has agreed to implement US legislation designed to curb offshore tax evasion, offering further evidence of the desire of Pope Francis to clean up the finances of the Catholic Church and stamp out the Holy See’s reputation as a haven for illicit activity.

In what was dubbed a “historic event” by Archbishop Richard Gallagher, the equivalent of the Vatican’s foreign minister, the Holy See signed a deal to apply within its walls the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca), enacted by president Barack Obama in 2010.

James Politi reports that the agreement – the first intergovernmental deal between the US and the Vatican – will force the Institute for Religious Works (IoR), also known as the Vatican Bank, to transmit information on accounts held by American taxpayers in the city-state back to US authorities.

In implementing Fatca, the Vatican joins just 62 other…