VATICAN (CNS): Pope Francis approved new changes to the Vatican Financial Intelligence Authority, including a change of name to the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, in a new statute issued on December 5. Changes went into effect immediately.
The new statute is part of making the authority’s administration and internal governance be more transparent and bringing it in line with international standards, said the authority’s president, Carmelo Barbagallo, in an interview with Vatican News on December 5.
Barbagallo explained that it was important to add the term “supervisory” to the agency’s name in order to better reflect its role in financial oversight along with its original task of “intelligence” to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The authority is charged with “prudential” regulatory and supervisory functions on institutions providing financial services, such as the Vatican bank, he said.
One important change is the dividing of the old office of supervision and regulation into two separate offices. The authority now has three departments: a supervision unit, the regulation and legal affairs unit, and the financial intelligence unit.
The separation between functions puts the authority more in line with international best practices, Barbagallo said.
The regulatory and legal affairs office deals with all legal issues, including regulationsso “the tasks of setting the rules have been separated from those of exercising control,” he said.
The recruitment and hiring of lay personnel will also be subjected to the Vatican’s independent evaluation commission, according to the new statute.
The authority will have to go through the same commission that the other offices and departments of the Roman Curia have to go through for the recruitment and hiring of lay staff members.
Barbagallo said this change in its hiring procedure “guarantees a more extensive selection of candidates and greater control in recruitment decisions, avoiding the risk of arbitrariness.”
This also “contributes to strengthening the authority’s independence in the exercise of its important prerogatives,” he said.
