The Vatican on Thursday created a financial watchdog agency and issued new laws to fight money laundering and terrorist financing in a major effort to shed its image as a tax haven that for years has been mired in secrecy and scandal, The Associated Press reports.
The decrees, which go into effect April 1, were passed as the Vatican’s own bank remains implicated in a money-laundering investigation that resulted in 23 million euros ($31 million) being seized and its top two officials placed under investigation.
The bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, is one of several Vatican offices that are covered by the new financial transparency rules. The Vatican city state’s governing administration, the department that controls the pope’s vast real estate holdings, even the Holy See’s pharmacy, museum and TV station are covered as well.
The bank was created to manage assets placed in its care that are destined for religious works or works of charity. But it also manages ATMs inside Vatican City and the pension system for the Vatican’s thousands of employees.
The bank is not open to the public. Its list of account-holders is secret, but bank officials say there are some 40,000-45,000 among religious congregations, clergy, Vatican officials and lay people with Vatican connections.
