VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | May. 16, 2017
VATICAN CITY
The Vatican’s financial watchdog registered a three-fold decrease in suspicious transactions undertaken in the city-state’s financial institutions in 2016, stating in a yearly report the downtick indicates more effective implementation of Pope Francis’ reforms.
The Financial Information Authority, or AIF, says in the report that it marked 207 activities as questionable last year and suspended four suspicious transactions worth a total of 2.1 million Euro. In 2015 the agency had marked 544 activities and halted 12 transactions worth 15.3 million Euro and $2.4 million.
The AIF says in the report, released Thursday, that the decrease indicates “an ever-increasing and effective implementation of reporting requirements.”
The agency also reveals it made 22 reports to the Vatican’s Office of the Promoter of Justice, the city-state’s prosecutorial division, for possible review of crimes including fraud and “serious tax evasion, misappropriation and corruption.”
The watchdog agency gave the statistics in its fifth annual report. The agency, which was started by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 but continued and strengthened under Francis, has been working to bring the Vatican’s diverse set of financial organizations into compliance with international standards.
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