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| Mr Tedeschi is under investigation for suspected money-laundering |
The
director of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, has been removed from his
post for dereliction of duty, the Vatican says.
The bank's
board of directors unanimously passed a no-confidence vote in Mr Tedeschi, a
statement said.
It said he
had failed "to carry out duties of primary importance", but it did
not elaborate.
In 2010
Italian police launched an investigation against Mr Tedeschi as part of a
money-laundering inquiry.
Members of
the board believed Mr Tedeschi's dismissal was needed to "maintain the
vitality of the bank", the Vatican statement said.
The board
will now look for a new director to restore relations with the international
financial community, "based on mutual respect for accepted international
banking standards".
Mr Tedeschi
declined to comment on his dismissal. He told journalists: "I'd rather say
nothing, otherwise I'd say ugly things."
The Vatican
Bank, known officially as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), was created
during World War II to administer accounts held by religious orders, cardinals,
bishops and priests.
It lost
£250m in a scandal involving the collapse of one of Italy's biggest private banks
- the Banco Ambrosiano - in 1982, with which it had close ties.
'Misunderstanding'
The Vatican
Bank has been headed by Mr Tedeschi, 62, a trained economist, since 2009.
When Mr
Tedeschi was placed under investigation in 2010, the Vatican said it was "perplexed
and astonished", and expressed full confidence in Mr Tedeschi.
It said the
matter was the result of a misunderstanding, and that none of its employees
were involved in any wrongdoing.
As part of
the inquiry, Italian tax police seized 23m euros ($29m, £18.4m) that the
Vatican Bank had tried to transfer from a small Italian bank called Credito
Artigianato.
A month
later, the Vatican set up a new financial authority to combat money laundering
and make its financial operations more transparent, ahead of an EU deadline.
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Paolo
Gabriele (bottom left) sees more of the
Pope on a daily basis than most
cardinals
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