VATICAN CITY
Europe Online
Vatican City (dpa) – The Institute for Religious Works (IOR), a scandal-plagued body that serves as the Vatican‘s bank, reported Monday a sharp rise in profits and said it was making progress on cleaning up its finances.
The IOR made a profit of 69.3 million euros (76 million dollars) in 2014, compared with 2.9 million euros the previous year, thanks to more lucrative trading in securities and a reduction in operating expenses.
The institute said it would put its profits to use by donating 55 million euros to the main budget of the Vatican and by stashing 14.3 million euros in its retained earnings reserve.
The Vatican bank also said it was making a “great effort […] in addressing the abuse the Institute was subjected to in the past,” in compliance with tougher Vatican financial supervision standards and a recently signed tax agreement between the Vatican and Italy.
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