Your gift counts double until 5/31: $29,335 to go in our Easter Campaign. Please help now!

Italian lawyer to head Vatican financial authority

CWN - March 07, 2011

An Italian lawyer specializing in banking, Francesco De Pasquale, has been appointed director of the Vatican’s newly created Financial Information Authority (FIA).

Cardinal Attilio Nicora, the president of the FIA, announced the appointment of De Pasquale to head the Vatican’s efforts to ensure that financial transactions do not open opportunities for money-laundering by criminals or terrorists.

The FIA was created in December 2010 to supervise all Vatican financial transactions. The new office was set up in response to complaints that the Vatican’s banking procedures had allowed for exploitation by criminals involved in money-laundering schemes.

In a Vatican Radio interview, an Italian expert on money-laundering described De Pasquale as “an important professional figure” in the field, noting that the new director of the FIA “has, since 1990, been a member of the Italian delegation to the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (GAFI) and is an expert in evaluating the degree to which the norms of the Statute conform to international anti-money laundering standards.”

The FIA has set up offices in the Palazzo San Carlo, inside the Vatican, and is preparing to assume full responsibility for enforcing the new Vatican standards for financial transactions when they come into effect on April 1.

Additional sources for this story
Some links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

An appeal from our founder, Dr. Jeffrey Mirus:

Dear reader: If you found the information on this page helpful in your pursuit of a better Catholic life, please support our work with a donation. Your donation will help us reach five million Truth-seeking readers worldwide this year. Thank you!

Easter Campaign:
Progress toward our Spring 2013 goal ($29,335 to go):
$80,000.00 $50,664.70
37% 63%
Sound Off! CatholicCulture.org supporters weigh in.

All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!

There are no comments yet for this item.

Catholic World News Email Newsletter
Donate to Support this Site: Your contribution will be put to good work.
Tour the CatholicCulture.org Site
Shop Amazon to Raise Money for Catholic Culture

Recent Catholic Commentary

Learning from the sick, and from the death of a child May 17
The case for change in Irish abortion law: based on a framework of falsehood May 17
The Smell of the Sheep May 16
Too many missing funds: Catholic institutions need tighter financial controls May 16
What capitalists should learn from the Pope's critique May 16

Top Catholic News

Most Important Stories of the Last 30 Days
Pope strongly supports call for reform in religious life CWN - May 8