ROME
U.S. News
By Philip Pullella
ROME (Reuters) – Italy put the Vatican on its “white list” of states with cooperative financial institutions on Tuesday, ending years of mistrust and providing an endorsement of efforts by Pope Francis to clean up the city state’s banking sector.
The list includes countries with which Italy has agreements on the exchange of financial and tax information, such as other EU member states.
The upgrade was formalized in a decree published in the government’s Official Gazette.
The Vatican is a sovereign state in the middle of Rome whose financial activities the Bank of Italy had for decades viewed with suspicion.
Last July the BOI and Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), signed a cooperation agreement allowing authorities to monitor transactions between Italian financial entities and the Vatican.
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