The Holy See's new anti-money laundering law signals that the Vatican
is clearly taking the path to full financial transparency, according to
the director of the state's Financial Information Authority.
René Bruelhart told CNA Oct. 9 that “with the new AML/CFT Act the Holy
See and the Vatican City State introduced a comprehensive system in
accordance with the international standards to fight money-laundering
and financing of terrorism.”
“It is a further step to strengthen its system to actively combat any
potential misuse of financial activities within the Vatican City State.”
The act was confirmed as law Oct. 8, but had already come into effect
Aug. 8 via a decree of Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of Vatican
City's government.
Known as Law XVIII, the act regards financial transparency, supervision,
and information, clarifying and consolidating the functions, powers and
responsibilities of the Financial Information Authority.
It is part of the implementation of an Aug. 8 motu proprio from Pope
Francis which strengthened the Financial Information Authority.
Law XVIII also charges the Financial Information Authority with
“prudential supervision” functions. A lack of prudential supervision had
criticized by Moneyval auditors in a July report.
Prudential supervision allows the Financial Information Authority to
evaluate if an investment by a Holy See institution is prudent, or if it
risks leading the institution to insolvency.
Law XVIII is another Vatican step to improve its own anti-money
laundering legislation. It follows upon an earlier Vatican anti-money
laundering law, issued at the end of 2010 and which came into effect in
March 2011.
Following an on-site visit of the evaluators of Moneyval – the Council
of Europe committee that evaluates member states' adherence to the
anti-money laundering standards – the Holy See improved and perfected
its anti-money laundering law with a 2012 decree.
The decree was met favorably by the Moneyval committee, which issued a generally positive report on Vatican City in July 2012.
The Moneyval report underlined that the Holy See has “come a long way in
a very short period of time.” It gave a positive evaluation on nine out
of 16 “key and core” anti-money laundering recommendations.
Like all member states, Vatican City must now issue a progress report at
the next Moneyval plenary assembly, to be held on Dec. 9-13. The
progress report focuses on the improvements of Vatican legislation
regarding the committee's “key and core” recommendations.
It comes as part of a long-term strategy to meet international
standards, and several improvements to the anti-money laundering law
witness to Vatican City's strong commitment to financial transparency.
In December 2012, the anti-money laundering law was subjected to two
modifications in order to improve international cooperation.
The modifications gave the Financial Information Authority the
possibility to sign memoranda of understanding with peer authorities
without oversight from the Vatican's secretariat of state.