Vatican moving towards greater financial transparency

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Vatican has taken another step in trying to show greater financial transparency by publishing a first annual report from its new financial watchdog agency.

According to The Associated Press, the report released Wednesday, May 22, showed the agency received six reports of suspicious internal transactions in 2012, up from one a year earlier, and that two were sent onto Vatican prosecutors for investigation.

The 10-page report, however, makes no mention of any supervisory operations carried out in 2012 despite recommendations from international evaluators that such work — including inspections, risk assessments and regulation — is critical to fighting money laundering and terror financing.

The Vatican created the agency in 2010 in a bid to shed its image as a secretive tax haven and improve its reputation in global financial circles following a series of scandals.