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The Vatican bank and other Vatican offices with financial transactions are becoming more adept at identifying and stopping suspicious financial activity, according to the Vatican's Financial Information and Supervision Authority.
While the authority's primary mandate is to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing, its 2024 annual report noted that progress had also been made in its ability "to identify, for the purpose of subsequent recovery, the route of illicitly obtained money."
Report of financial activities
On April 9, the 2024 annual report of the Financial Information and Supervisory Authority. The office was established by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 as part of broader Vatican actions to prevent illegal activities in monetary and financial transactions and to comply with international standards in the fight against financial crime.
The Institute for the Works of Religion, the formal name for what is commonly called the Vatican bank, and other Vatican offices filed only 79 suspicious activity reports with the authority in 2024, compared with 123 in 2023, according to the report.
Following the investigation, only 11 such reports were forwarded to the Vatican City State Prosecutor's Office, demonstrating "the improved ability of the system to intercept cases characterized by elements concretely suggestive of some illegal activities," the report states.
Signs of irregularity
The report lists five "anomaly indicators" most frequently found in suspicious activity reports: cash transactions; transactions inconsistent with the client's status or past transactions; illogical or unnecessarily complex transactions; negative press reports about the client; and a connection to "risky jurisdictions."
Due to suspicious activity, the report notes, three transfer transactions, totaling just over 1.05 million euros ($1.17 million), were suspended, and two accounts in the Vatican bank, with just over 2.11 million euros ($2.34 million), were frozen.
The report also highlighted closer cooperation with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and similar government offices in other countries because "the Holy See is firmly committed to ensuring international cooperation and exchange of information in order to prevent tax evasion and facilitate compliance with tax requirements by foreign citizens and legal entities" that have a relationship with the Vatican bank.
