The Vatican reports 36% fall in suspicious financial activities

The Vatican’s financial authority reported a significant fall in the reports of suspicious activities in 2024, attributing the decrease to a “progressive refinement” in the selection process instead of a lower surveillance, according to its annual report published on Wednesday.

The Financial Supervision and Information Authority (ASIF), the Vatican Financial Control Agency, received 79 reports of suspicious activities in 2024, compared to 123 in 2023, which represents a decrease of approximately 36%.

“In this context, a numerical reduction is positive news because it represents an increase in quality and not a reduction in care by informants,” says the report released on April 9.

Although less reports were received, the ASIF transmitted 11 reports to the Office of the Justice promoter (the Vatican Prosecutor) in 2024, the same amount as in 2023, which suggests greater precision in the identification of potentially criminal financial activities.

“This is evidenced in the quality of relations and the various forms of cooperation with the national and international authorities, as well as in the good results achieved by the IOR (Institute for Works of Religion),” writes Carmelo Barbagallo, president of the ASIF, in the introduction of the report.

The report details that, of the 79 suspicious activity reports received, 73 came from the Bank of the Vatican, the Institute for Religion Works, and 36 of them were related to high -risk jurisdictions. Various authorities of the Holy See and the state of the city of the Vatican presented the remaining six reports.

The ASIF also found an increase in preventive measures for 2024, among which two transaction suspensions for a total amount of 817,280 euros (about $ 900,000 US dollars) and two accounts blockages in the IOR.

The financial control agency highlighted the positive advances in international cooperation, with 32 requests for information or spontaneous communications to foreign counterparts in 2024, compared to 22 in 2023. Asif also received 13 communications of this type of foreign financial intelligence units, compared to the 10 of the previous year.

Especially worth mentioning was the result of the monitoring evaluation by Moneyval, the Money laundering control agency of the Council of Europe.

The agency evaluated the progress of the Holy See when addressing the deficiencies identified in the Mutual Evaluation Report of April 2021.

“The Moneyval Committee acknowledged that significant progress had been made and expressed a positive evaluation in relation to the three recommendations,” says the report. These recommendations referred to the correspondent banking, bank transfers and the transparency of legal persons.

“As a result of these findings, the next technical compliance evaluation is scheduled for four years.”

The IOR “is confirmed as a solid and well -organized entity”, according to the report, based on the “constant and systematic verification activity” by ASIF of relevant profiles for the “healthy, prudent and sustainable management” of the institute.

The report also details significant leadership changes in Asif, with Federico Antellini Russo appointed as director with the function of vice president in November 2024, replacing Giuseppe Schlitzer, whose five -year mandate concluded on March 31.

In his final presentation as director, Schlitzer expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, “for the opportunity that was granted to me to serve the Holy See in such a prestigious position” and extended his thanks to Barbagallo and all the ASIF staff.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.