VATICAN CITY
Spear’s
Alex Matchett, Wednesday, 2nd October 2013
The Vatican is set to reform its bank by closing all its accounts in its foreign embassies.
After Vatican missions in Indonesia, Iran and Iraq made withdrawals from the accounts of up to €500,000 at a time under disconcertingly vague pretences such as ‘personnel’ and ‘refurbishment’, a Vatican watchdog has suggesting closing all such accounts.
It’s good news for the religious to see God taking an interest in fiscal prudence. The need for better banking standards now has a whole new mandate: that of the kingdom of heaven. For those less pious it’s refreshing to see one of the world’s most arcane institutions making a stand against a less than glorious history of secretive banking.
The Institute for Religious Works, as the bank is known, holds about €7.1 billion in assets under its management and has previously been beset by controversy. As Reuters reported earlier this year, Ernst von Freyberg, a German lawyer hired in February to run the IOR, told colleagues that embassy accounts were potentially dangerous, and that he wanted to close them. The Vatican secretariat stepped in and quashed the investigation for fear of damaging diplomatic relations.
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