Holy See: Culture of responsibility needed to counter new forms of financial crime

By Daniele Piccini 

Fifteen years after the introduction of the first law on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing in the Vatican City State, “the best way to honour this progress is not simply to celebrate it, but to subject it once again to careful scrutiny,” particularly in light of emerging forms of financial crime.

This was at the heart of the address which Archbishop Anthony Ekpo, Assessor for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State and President of the Financial Security Committee of the Holy See and the Vatican City State, delivered on the morning of September 29.

He spoke at The Dome at Rome’s Luiss University, which hosted an international day of study on the theme “Fifteen Years Since the First Anti-Money Laundering (AML) / Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) Law in the Holy See and the Vatican City State.”

Threat posed by new technologies

Efforts to review and strengthen the system are all the more necessary given the increasingly widespread use of new technologies in financial crime.

“The next 15 years,” Archbishop Ekpo said, “will bring risks that would have been difficult to imagine in 2010: increasingly complex financial technologies, instantaneous cross-border transactions, activities involving virtual assets, artificial intelligence and new forms of financial crime. We will certainly need strong laws, but also, above all, strong institutions, effective cooperation, professional judgment, technological expertise and a culture of responsibility.”

Archbishop Anthony Ekpo, Assessor for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State and President of the Financial Security Committee of the Holy See and the Vatican City State, addressing the conference at Luiss

Pope Benedict XIV’s initiative

The President of the Financial Security Committee recalled the timing, circumstances and reasons behind the introduction of the new legislation.

“On December 30, 2010, Law No. 127 of the Vatican City State was promulgated, establishing the first comprehensive legal framework for the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing. On the same day, Pope Benedict XVI extended its application to the relevant institutions of the Holy See and decided to participate in an international system based on shared responsibility and mutual accountability.”

The years following the introduction of the new legislation saw the gradual development of a broader legal and institutional framework, Archbishop Ekpo continued, including “participation in the international system for combating money laundering through periodic external assessments and ongoing dialogue, while subsequent reforms strengthened prevention, supervision, financial intelligence, coordination and international cooperation.”

Pope Francis: Money must serve, not govern

Supervision, financial intelligence and international cooperation, he further argued, serve to “protect people” and “preserve trust,” while ensuring that “financial resources remain what they should always be—means placed at the service of the legitimate purposes of institutions and individuals and, ultimately, the common good.”

While such transparency is important for every institution, it is indispensable for an institution such as the Vatican City State, which is entrusted with managing donations and funding for charitable purposes.

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“The resources entrusted to its institutions,” the President of the Financial Security Committee said, “have a value that goes beyond the economic—they carry an expectation of integrity and trust in the purpose for which they are made available and in the way they will be administered. In this sense, financial integrity is therefore inseparable from trust in institutions.”

This is a task of “profound significance,” a principle Pope Francis clearly understood “when, upon receiving the evaluators of the anti-money laundering system in 2020 (Moneyval), he recalled a principle expressed in Evangelii gaudium: money must serve, not govern.”

An international panel of speakers participated in the panel

15 years of progress

“Today, 15 years on,” Archbishop Ekpo concluded, “we can recognize significant progress. The legal framework has matured. Institutions have evolved. Supervision and cooperation mechanisms have become more sophisticated. A culture of financial integrity has gradually developed through the patient work of legislators, regulatory and supervisory authorities, financial intelligence experts, law enforcement agencies, judges and institutions.”

The Holy See has also sought to reaffirm this commitment recently with Pope Leo XIV’s approval of the new Statute of the Financial Intelligence and Supervisory Authority (ASIF).

In the Chirograph of June 25, 2026, the Pope reiterated that “transparency, integrity and accountability in economic and financial activities are indispensable elements of good administration and service to the common good.” This reaffirmed the Holy See’s commitment—pursued “with continuity and determination”—to the progressive strengthening of its legal and institutional framework.

Over the years, this process has led to the development of an increasingly comprehensive system of prevention, supervision and control, based on the principles of legality, transparency, proportionality and international cooperation. 

It has also led to the gradual strengthening of regulations to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, alongside stronger prudential supervision of entities engaged in financial activities.

With the new Statute, this process takes another step forward institutionally, with the aim—outlined by the Pope himself—of contributing to the “transparency, integrity, stability and security” of the Holy See’s and the Vatican City State’s economic and financial system.