Vatican financial authority reports further decline in financial links to laundering, terrorism

President and director of the AIF present the 2018 Report. The Vatican system was welcomed in the Sepa (Single Euro Payments Area). The first conviction for money laundering. New agreement protocols with foreign jurisdictions.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Cases of suspected money laundering and terrorist financing activities linked to the financial system of the Holy See have considerably dropped according to the Vatican Financial Information Authority (AIF), which today presented its Report for the year 2018 at the Holy See Press Office.

The AIF carries out an information and surveillance function and has international connections with foreign supervisory institutions. President René Brülhart and director Tommaso Di Ruzza (respectively right and left in the photo) attended the press conference.

In 2018 the AIF received 56 reports of suspected money laundering, compared to 150 in the previous year. No reports, however, for suspected terrorist activities.

In the published statistics, it is noted that in 2018 transactions and operations were suspended for 422,077 euros; accounts and funds blocked for 2.36 million euros.

The Report reveals two more positive elements: the first concerns the reception of the Vatican financial system within Sepa (Single Euro Payments Area); the second is that in 2018 the the first conviction for money laundering took place at the Vatican Tribunal.

In fact, following indications from the AIF, building contractor Angelo Proietti (under house arrest for fraudulent bankruptcy), was sentenced for laundering to two years and six months of imprisonment and the confiscation of over one million euros.

The Report recalls that in 2018, the AIF signed 8 new memoranda of understanding with counterparties in foreign jurisdictions (including Panama and Brazil) and exchanged information in 488 cases.

To date, the AIF has signed memoranda of understanding with the counterparts of 56 countries on all continents.

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