IOR headquarters is in the semi-circular Torrione Niccolo V to the right of the Apostolic Palace.
I was just about to translate a story by Andrea Tornielli from today's Il Giornale about this, but dpa has the story, which it says it took from the OR, but is not among the stories posted by OR online today... Tornielli says the papal document will be in the form of a motu proprio.
Pope reportedly set to decree
anti-laundering banking reforms for IOR
Vatican City, Dec. 29 (dpa) - Pope Benedict XVI is set to introduce reforms to the Vatican's banking system to bring it in line with international measures aimed at curbing money laundering and fraud, reports said Wednesday.
The pontiff will issue a document on Thursday for the creation of a centralised banking system that will govern the Vatican's financial affairs, the Holy See's newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano said.
The initiative stems from agreements between the Vatican and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
It will allow the OSCE to monitor money transactions involving the Vatican's bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), according to Italian newspaper reports.
The IOR is currently involved in a legal tussle with Italian authorities over the confiscation of some 23 million euros (30.3 million dollars) deposited from one of its accounts into that of an of an Italian bank.
The deposit allegedly contravenes anti-money laundering provisions introduced by Italy in 2007 that require banks to notify authorities of transactions involving non-European Union financial institutions such as the IOR.
Two top managers of the IOR are also being investigated in connection with the money.
The Vatican has said the seizing of the money was probably the result of a "misunderstanding" and that the IOR would easily be able to clear up the matter with Italian authorities. It has also defended the conduct of its managers.
The IOR handles accounts of religious orders and other Catholic associations using the offshore status of the Holy See.
In 1982 the IOR was embroiled in the collapse of an Italian bank, Banco Ambrosiano, of which it was the major shareholder.
The IOR's then head, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, was under consideration for indictment in 1982 in Italy as an accessory to the bankruptcy, but was protected by his diplomatic immunity as a Vatican prelate.
NB: Since the so-called IOR scandal broke out last summer, IOR president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi has always maintained that the IOR was in the process of completing negotiations to to be part of the European system of banks governed by common anti-fraud laws, and that the complaint filed against IOR by an Italian bank against the IOR - with seizure of its funds - was the result of a misunderstanding and not a deliberate violation of anti-laundering regulations, that in fact, the funds in question belonged to IOR itself and was not to any private account. Nonetheless, in view of the huge scandal in which the IOR played a major role in the 1980s, the MSM seized on the story as a new pretext to denigrate the Vatican bank. There was a flurry of new 'Vatican mired in banking scandal' stories just before Christmas, which I did not post because they merely recycled the reports from last September.
Paolo Rodari's story in Il Foglio today...
'Habemus bancam':
Motu proprio will establish
a Vatican central bank
Translated from
December 29, 2010
The Holy Father meets with Gotti Tedeschi and his wife after a General Audience last September, shortly afterit became known that the bank president and his direcotr-general were being investigated for alleged violation of banking regulations.
Really big and unprecedented news from the Vatican: In the next few days, Pope Benedict XVI will issue a Motu Proprio that will institute a Vatican central bank to supervise all financial offices in the city state, including that of IOR, the Vatican bank originally established centuries ago to fund religious activities.
By doing so, the Pope will be updating the Vatican financial structure to international standards in terms of regulating bank activities, particularly against money laundering and bank fraud.
The European office for Security and Economic Coopration can then evaluate whether to include the Vatican in the so-called 'white list' of European banks who are bound by these standards.
The Pope's decision comes many weeks after the Rome prosecutor's office started an investigation of IOR's president and director general for alleged violation of anti-laundering regulations, for which 23 million euros of IOR funds have been sequestered by an Italian bank.
Expected to direct the new institution is Cardinal Attilio Nicora, who is already the administrator of the Holy See Patrimony. One of his first tasks will be to reduce or eliminate the so-called anonymous current accounts existing in the IOR belonging to non-religious individuals or corporations.
If I understand these reports correctly, the IOR is not yet a signatory to the OCSE regulations - nor has it been accepted to become part of the signatory list - so how can the Italian government investigate the bank for 'violating' regulations to which is not yet a signatory????
And early this afternoon, an official announcement...
Documents pubished tomorrow
regarding control of financial
activities within the Vatican
Translated from
Dec. 29, 2010
Journalists are hereby informed that tomorrow, Thursday, December 30, the Vatican Press Office will issue the following documents:
- Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio by the Holy Father regarding measures to prevent and oppose illegal financial and monetary activities
- Statute establishing the Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF, Financial Information Authority)
- Law on measures to prevent and oppose money laundering by criminal elements and against funding terrorism activities.
The documents will be introduced by an appropriate and ample communique in Italian and in English which will describe the content of the documents and their significance, in order to facilitate correct reading and interpretation of these documents.
All these amterials will be available at 10 a.m. tomorrow, but with an embargo until 12 noon.
Pope to publish decree
against money laundering
ROME, Dec. 29 (AFP_ - Pope Benedict XVI will publish a decree on Thursday to fight money laundering in the Vatican, the Holy See said in a press release.
The Wednesday announcement comes three months after an investigation was launched into two senior figures at the Vatican bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR).
Benedict's 'Moto Proprio' document 'regarding the prevention and opposition to illegal financial activity,' will set up a new financial authority in the Vatican, the statement said.
It will also lay down a law on 'the prevention and the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism,' it said.
According to the agency i.media, which specialises in religious information, the arrangements should eventually allow the Vatican onto the 'White list,' the list of states that have strict anti-money laundering controls.
In September, Italy's financial police seized 23 million euros (S$39.1 million) from IOR as part of an investigation into the bank on suspicion of violating the country's money-laundering rules.
Consider this yet another signal achievement of this Pontificate. Despite the disastrous fallout from the IOR's involvement in the massive Banco Ambrosiano scandal of the 1980s, no real reforms were really carried out at the IOR until last year when Benedict XVI authorized replacement of all the old guard at IOR and ordered the new president Ettore Gotti Tedeschi to clean up and streamline internal operations.
Now, with these new measures, the internal operations of the Vatican bank, will for the first time ever, be subject to inspection by European banking authorities.
Italy's leading financial newspaper calls these developments a revolution, no less:
A new transparency for IOR:
Papa Ratzinger's revolution
Translated from
Dec. 29, 2010
In the past two years, we have come a long way from the dark years of IOR, but a certain opacity still surrounded the Rorrione Niccolo V, the historic seat of IOR beside the Apostolic Palace.
Now, a historic turn - and about time. frankly. Tomorrow, with a papal Motu Proprio, one of the strongest legal intruments at the Vatican, new rules will be adopted to prevent and fight money laundering, fraud and falsifications in Vatican banking operations.
The Vatican has been working for over a year with the European Union on adopting these international regulations which will guarantee discreet efficiency in achieving their objectives.
This pursues the hard line begun in 2009 under Cardinal Bertone who heads the commission of cardinals overseeing IOR operations, with the appointment of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi as IOR president.
More regulations will follow when the Vatican is formally accepted into the 'white list' of banks sueprvised by the EU's Organization for Security and Economic Cooperation.
Meanwhile, the Vatican euro with the Pope's image on the coins will be entering into general ciruclation, and the Vatican will have teh equivalent of a central bank which will be able to dialog with the European Central Bank and with Italian bank authorities.
In short, with a gesture that is revolutionary - given the millenary caution typical of the Vatican - Pope Benedict XVI is taking away the protective screens on Vatican financial operations that had always seemed impervious to any assaults.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 30/12/2010 16:06]