BBC News, 8
August 2013
Related
Stories
The Pope
has stepped up the fight against corruption at the Vatican by strengthening
supervision of financial transactions at its internal bank.
Pope
Francis issued a decree designed to combat money-laundering and prevent any
financing of terrorism.
It is the
latest move to stamp out abuses at the Vatican bank, which handles funds for
the Catholic Church.
The Pope
recently set up a commission to investigate the bank and report back to him
personally.
Last month
the Vatican froze the account of a senior cleric, Monsignor Nunzio Scarano,
suspected of involvement in money-laundering.
He and two
others were arrested by Italian police in June on suspicion of trying to move
20m euros ($26m; £17m) illegally.
Pope
Francis's number one priority this summer is to sort out the financial mess at
the Vatican bank and a parent body which looks after the financial assets of
the Holy See, the BBC's David Willey reports from Rome.
Bank review
The new
decree is intended to tackle "money-laundering, the financing of terrorism
and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction", the Vatican said.
It sets up
a financial security committee to coordinate the anti-corruption effort.
Church
spokesman Federico Lombardi said the decree would help the Vatican resist
"increasingly insidious" forms of international financial crime.
A
French-based financial watchdog, Moneyval, has been carrying out a review of
the Vatican bank's operations.
It found
that the bank had not always exercised due diligence.
The Vatican
bank, which is known officially as the Institute for Religious Works, handles
the payroll for some 5,000 Vatican employees.
It also
handles the funds for the central administration of the Catholic Church and
holds the accounts of cardinals, bishops, priests, nuns and religious orders
around the world.
It does not
lend money and has assets worth $8.3bn (£5.4bn; 6.2bn euros).
Related Articles:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.