Pope Francis promised to clean up the Vatican’s murky finances
Nov 21st 2019VATICAN CITYAFTER A WEEK of resignations and exclusions, the Vatican faces the very real risk of being reduced once more to the status of an international financial pariah. In the coming days its officials are due to answer a detailed questionnaire for Moneyval, Europe’s anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist-financing watchdog. The picture they will have to paint could scarcely be less reassuring.The Financial Information Authority (AIF)—the Vatican’s regulatory body and the cornerstone of a nine-year campaign to dispel the Holy See’s image as a refuge for hot money and shady dealings—is no longer eligible to receive intelligence on suspected financial crime from its counterparts in other states. The AIF’s president, René Brülhart, has left (the Vatican announced on November 19th that his contract would not be renewed). Half his board has since resigned. And the authority’s director is suspended from duty.Choose us for news analysis that respects your time and intelligenceSubscribe to The EconomistWe filter out the noise of the daily news cycle and analyse the trends that matterWe give you rigorous, deeply researched and fact-checked journalism. That’s why Americans named us their most trusted news source in 2017Available wherever you are—in print, digital and, uniquely, in audio, fully narrated by professional broadcastersThis website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard‘s standards of credibility and transparency.ORContinue reading this articleRegister with an email address