The Vatican's financial watchdog has taken on responsibility for evaluating suspicious donations to Vatican-based charities and foundations, an assignment that marks a new phase of Pope Francis' financial reforms.
An annual report released by the Financial Information Authority on Friday showed a progressive consolidation of efforts to bring the Vatican into compliance with international norms for fighting money laundering and terrorist financing.
For its dual job of supervising the Vatican bank and serving as the Holy See's financial intelligence unit, the AIF, as the agency is known, collects and evaluates reports of suspicious transactions. In recent years, the bulk of those reports have come from the bank, the Institute for Religious Works, but also other Holy See offices.
Over the years, the Vatican has worked to clean up its financial house, particularly at the bank, which has long been mired in scandal. In February, two former bank heads were found liable by the Vatican's civil tribunal for mismanagement for bad investments and ordered them to repay the institution…….
And on May 9, another former bank president, Angelo Caloia, and his lawyer are due to go on trial on criminal embezzlement charges related to losses of more than 50 million euros ($62 million) from Vatican real estate sales.
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://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/vatican-aims-charities-donations-clean-law-54781654