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Secretive Vatican bank takes step to transparency
http://www.adn.com/2013/09/30/3103480/secretive-vatican-bank-takes-step.html
FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010, file photo, Italian financial police officers talk to each other in front of St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. The Vatican took another step in its efforts to be more financially transparent by publishing a first-ever annual report for the Vatican bank on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. It comes as Italian prosecutors investigate alleged money-laundering there, a Vatican monsignor remains in detention and the pope himself probes the problems that have brought such scandal to the institution.
Secretive Vatican bank takes step to transparency
Published: September 30, 2013 Updated 6 minutes ago
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican took another step in its efforts to be more financially transparent by publishing a first-ever annual report for the Vatican bank on Tuesday. It comes as Italian prosecutors investigate alleged money-laundering there, a Vatican monsignor remains in detention and the pope himself probes the problems that have brought such scandal to the institution.
Earnings at the bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, rose more than four-fold in 2012 as net trading income rebounded from a loss in 2011, the report said. The IOR said it earned 86.6 million euros ($116.95 million) as the value of the securities it held and sold rose to 51.1 million euros from a loss of 38.2 million in 2011. More than 50 million euros of that profit was given to the pope for his charitable works.
The picture may not be so rosy for 2013, with rising interest rates cutting into profits and millions of euros earmarked for the IOR's ongoing transparency process, which has involved hiring outside legal, financial and communications experts to revamp its procedures, review its client base and remake its image.
"Overall, we expect 2013 to be marked by the extraordinary expenses for the ongoing reform and remediation process, and the effects of rising interest rates," bank president Ernst von Freyberg said in a statement.
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This camper is pretty impressed with Pope Francis.
