IOR posts $38M profit amid financial clouds over Vatican
According to the bank’s 2024 annual report, the IOR was able to issue a dividend of $15m for charitable works
The Vatican’s Institute for the Works of Religion reported another significant year of profit for 2024.
According to the bank’s 2024 annual report, released June 11, the IOR recorded a net profit of 32.8 million euros (almost $38 million), an increase from 30.6 million euros ($35 million) in 2023.
The result enabled the Vatican’s only commercial bank to issue a dividend of 13.8 million euros ($15.8 million), all of which Pope Francis directed to charitable projects.
Writing in the annual report, the bank’s president Jean-Baptiste de Franssu said that “It is important to note that as there is no lender of last resort in the Vatican to deal with possible short-term market crises and, as there is no deposit guarantee laws, IOR has adopted a prudent dividend policy.”
“This provides IOR with adequate level of capital to ensure that its operations are sustainable, and its clients protected,” de Franssu said.
The 2024 figure was slightly higher than in 2023, when the IOR set a dividend of 13.6 million euros ($15.6 million).
Pope Leo XIV is likely to welcome the rise in the dividend, given the Vatican’s deep financial problems, which include a pension black hole and a runaway structural budget deficit.
Each year, the IOR publishes its intermediation margin — the difference between how much it made on interest versus how much it paid in interest to clients. In 2024, the margin was 51.5 million euros ($59 million), representing a 3.6% increase from 2023.
The bank also reports annually on its Tier 1 capital ratio, an international standard measuring liquidity and institutional risk exposure for financial institutions. The minimum international banking requirement is a ratio of 6%. The ratio for larger U.S. banks is usually somewhere between 13% and 17%,
In 2024, the IOR had a Tier 1 ratio of 69.4%, up from 59.8% in 2023.
“The robustness of the Tier 1 ratio, as well as the liquidity ratios, rank the Institute among the most solid financial institutions in the world in terms of capitalization and liquidity,” the Institute said in a June 11 press release.
The press release described the IOR as “the only entity authorized to professionally carry out financial activities in the Vatican City State.”
In 2022, Pope Francis decreed that the Institute should “exclusively” perform the role of “asset manager and custodian of the movable assets of the Holy See and of the institutions linked to the Holy See.”
The IOR has 105 employees and over 12,000 clients in more than 110 countries.
In 2024, it had 5.7 billion euros ($6.5 billion) in total assets under management, an increase from 5.4 billion euros in 2023 ($6.2 billion).
Last year, the IOR had 731.9 million euros ($841 million) in equity, the net value of its assets after subtracting all liabilities. This marked an increase of 64.3 million euros ($74 million) from 2023.
De Franssu, a French banking executive who has served as president of the IOR’s supervisory board since 2014, wrote in the annual report that the Institute had entered 2025 “with an even more resilient business.”
He said that “notwithstanding the difficult market environment experienced post the inauguration of President Trump, portfolios are overall well positioned.”
Commenting on the IOR’s performance in 2024, he said: “Such progress is of particular importance for the ongoing centralization process in the Vatican of all asset management activities at IOR as per the new regulations in place.”
“The teams at IOR are looking forward to continuing the cooperation with all Vatican dicasteries, institutions, and the Vatican investment committee on further developing and strengthening Catholic-based, faith-consistent investment services, with a view to be at the forefront of developments in this field and considered as a reference.”
The IOR has been at the center of several financial scandals since it was founded in 1942, most notably the Banco Ambrosiano scandal of the 1980s.
In 2021, the IOR’s own former president became the first person to be given a jail sentence by a Vatican City court for financial crimes, after defrauding the bank of millions by using his position to sell parts of the IOR’s property portfolio to himself and co-conspirators.
Following that result, de Franssu hailed the recovery of more than 17 million euros by the bank “which had been stolen from the [IOR] before 2014” as “amongst the important achievements” of 2022.
Referring to the IOR’s checkered history in the 2024 annual report, De Franssu wrote: “All legal actions taken over the years against abuses that occurred before 2014 as to seek justice also progressed well. From the total amount of over 33 million euros [$38 million] that IOR managed to claw back over the last 10 years, 1.6 million euros [$1.8 million] were booked in 2024 and much progress was made in the various ongoing court cases.”
Under de Franssu’s leadership, the bank has gained recognition as a committed agent of financial vigilance.
In 2019, it was the IOR leadership who flagged — despite threats and offers of “protection” from other Vatican departments, including the Secretariat of State — the suspicious activity which led to the uncovering of the London property scandal and Vatican financial crimes trial which convicted nine people, including a cardinal, in 2023.
As a civil party to that case, the bank filed a claim for 1 million euros in reputational damages against the defendants, which include the former deputy head of the Secretariat of State, Cardinal Angelo Becciu.
In October 2024, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn was elected president of the commission of cardinals overseeing the IOR. The 80-year-old Austrian cardinal retired in January as the Archbishop of Vienna. He has served as a member of the cardinals’ commission since 2014.
In a message in the 2024 annual report, Schönborn wrote: “The reorganization and evolution of the Institute from 2014 to today, which I have personally witnessed, now make it a solid point of reference for the entire Church that we serve in the world, especially in difficult periods such as those we are currently experiencing.”
I know these in-the-weeds reports aren't always everyone's cup of tea, but it's important reporting that I find quite useful. It's hard to contextualize the Vatican as an institution without understanding its under-the-hood financial performance. Bravo!
Weird how, once all the corruption gets cleaned up, it’s super profitable.