Moneyval Publishes Its Assessment of the Holy See

The Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) is a permanent monitoring agency of the Council of Europe responsible for assessing compliance with the main international standards in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

It is also responsible for assessing the effectiveness of the application of these standards, as well as making recommendations to national authorities on the necessary improvements to their systems.

In the evaluation of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the Vatican obtained 5 judgments of “substantial” effectiveness and 6 of “moderate” effectiveness, on a scale which includes a “low” degree, and a “high” degree. For ASIF President Carmelo Barbagallo, this is “an encouragement to do even better.”

Among the issues on which further progress must be made, the experts particularly pointed out three.

Procedures

Despite real progress, procedures are still ineffective in combating money laundering. Even though illicit products are tracked and detected, they are rarely recovered, due to this ineffectiveness.

Another problem is that investigations are too long, their results modest, and at the end of the day there is no real deterrent.

To temper this judgment, Moneyval recognizes that the Vatican depends on foreign jurisdictions which must provide it with the relevant information for carrying out the investigations, which slows down the work.

Insufficient Threat Assessment

This problem is twofold. Firstly, there is an insufficient assessment regarding those who are likely to launder. Secondly, there are many staff who are not sufficiently trained and do not have enough experience in the area of ​​money laundering.

Lack of Qualified Personnel

The Holy See has shortcomings in financial intelligence and difficulty in gathering evidence in the allotted time.

Finally, there is a lack of supervision of financial activities which may explain this slowness.

In a statement from the Holy See Press Office issued on Wednesday, it is stated that the “the Holy See welcomes the Moneyval Report published today and the invitation to continue on the path already undertaken.”