• All credit card transactions blocked: Holy See’s lack of transparency concerning money laundering gets it into trouble

    Den of thieves?

    Visiting Vatican city? You’ll need cash.

    Italy has blocked the use of debit and credit cards in the Vatican because of concerns over lack of transparency, in a major obstacle to one of the tiny city state’s biggest sources of income, financial sources said on Thursday.

    A source close to the Bank of Italy said the central bank in December denied a permit for Deutsche Bank Italy, the Vatican’s previous provider of electronic payment services, because the Holy See was seen as lacking anti-money laundering controls and oversight.

    It’s not the first time the Holy Mother Church and money laundering meet.

    The Vatican has struggled to shake off a reputation for a lack of financial transparency that dates back to 1982, when Roberto Calvi, an Italian known as “God’s banker” because of his links to the Vatican, was found hanged under London’s Blackfriars Bridge.

    In 2012 report by Moneyval, a Council of Europe-backed committee, found serious failings in the Vatican bank, or Institute for Works of Religion, and urged it to strengthen measures to prevent money laundering and increase transparency.

    “The Bank of Italy did not approve Deutsche Bank’s request for a licence because Italy does not see the Vatican as a fully compliant country under money-laundering norms,” another source close to the matter told Reuters.

    And at times it has been even seedier.

    The Vatican has struggled to shake off a reputation for a lack of financial transparency that dates back to 1982, when Roberto Calvi, an Italian known as “God’s banker” because of his links to the Vatican, was found hanged under London’s Blackfriars Bridge.

    Good thing to know in the intervening 30 years they have learned their lesson.

    Category: Uncategorized

    Article by: No Such Thing As Blasphemy

    I was raised in the Islamic world. By accident of history, the plague that is entanglement of religion and government affects most Muslim majority nations a lot worse the many Christian majority (or post-Christian majority) nations. Hence, I am quite familiar with this plague. I started doubting the faith I was raised in during my teen years. After becoming familiar with the works of enlightenment philosophers, I identified myself as a deist. But it was not until a long time later, after I learned about evolutionary science, that I came to identify myself as an atheist. And only then, I came to know the religious right in the US. No need to say, that made me much more passionate about what I believe in and what I stand for. Read more...