VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio
(Vatican Radio) The Vatican ‘s Financial Intelligence Authority revealed on Monday that it has recorded an increased number of suspicious financial transactions being reported in its monitoring of financial activities of the IOR – the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, or Vatican Bank.
The so called “AIF” was releasing its annual report at a press conference in the Vatican.
Authority Director, René Bruelhart, said the report showed that there were 202 suspicious transactions reported to the Financial Information Authority in 2013 compared with only six a year earlier and just one in 2011.
Five of those were referred onto Vatican prosecutors for possible investigation.
Bruelhart explained that the increase in numbers of suspicious transactions doesn’t mean that more illicit activity is taking place. He said it just means that new laws and procedures are being implemented and are working to flag potentially problematic transactions that may require further investigation.
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