Outsider is aware that banks and transparency are buzzwords right now but was surprised to read that even the Vatican was getting in on the act and was about to open the books to Italian authorities.
For the uninitiated the Vatican has been running its own bank, the Institute of Religious Works (or IOR for short — in Italian), since 1942 to manage the funds of various religious orders and charities within the Catholic Church.
According to reports the Italian authorities have been worried about possible ‘secret banking’ within the IOR which has struck disclosure deals with Monaco, Switzerland and Liechtenstein — three of Europe’s best loved tax havens.
Outsider is unsure how this whole transparency approach will work given that tax havens are not known for openness while the Italian authorities have…um…struggled…with preventing tax evasion, even among its politicians and law-makers, in the past.
However, if the Italian authorities are going to quiz the Pope about secret banking there is a reasonable expectation they should get a straight answer from a man who answers to a higher power!
