A European money-laundering watchdog has acknowledged the Vatican's drive to strengthen its procedures against financial crime, the Vatican press office reported on Wednesday.
'Moneyval, the Council of Europe's Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism approved the Vatican's report on its efforts, the Holy See press office said.
"The latest Progress Report confirms that the Holy See has established a functional, sustainable and effective system, aiming at preventing and fighting financial crimes," said Antoine Camilleri in a statement.
Camilleri is under-secretary for relations with states, and head of the delegation of the Holy See and Vatican City State to the Moneyval plenary, which took place on Tuesday.
The Vatican Bank, officially called the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) last year began the second phase of a reform process aimed at cleaning up its operations, which have long been tainted by allegations of money-laundering.
The bank has been targeted by several money-laundering probes that led to the arrest of a top prelate in 2013 and the resignations of several top bank officials.
Suspect transactions recorded by the Vatican's financial watchdog the Financial Intelligence Authority (AIF) fell in 2014 from the previous year in a sign that new anti-money laundering procedures are working, it reported in late May.
Spot checks at the Vatican Bank to assess progress in implementing international anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism funding norms "did not reveal the existence of any key omissions by IOR," AIF said.
