Vatican watchdog: Suspicious financial reports rose in 2025
The annual report from ASIF cited 'extraordinary events affecting the Catholic Church and the Holy See in 2025.'
The Vatican’s financial watchdog announced Thursday that it saw an increase in suspicious activity reports in 2025.
The Supervisory and Financial Information Authority’s latest annual report, published April 30, detailed 78 reports of suspicious activities in 2025, 73 of which came from the Institute for the Works of Religion, or IOR, the only financial institution under its direct supervision.
Although the watchdog announced last year that it received 79 suspicious activity reports in 2024, the new report revised the 2024 figure downward to 43. It is not unusual for annual compliance reports to make retrospective adjustments of figures.
The supervisory authority, known by its Italian acronym ASIF, attributed the rise in suspicious activity reports in 2025 partly to improved procedures at the IOR, following a “targeted inspection of reporting activities.”
It also cited “activities related to the extraordinary events affecting the Catholic Church and the Holy See in 2025,” possibly linked to the Jubilee Year and papal transition.
ASIF argued that the overall quality of the reports remained high, as a stable proportion of around 20% were sent on to the Vatican City State’s Office of the Promoter of Justice. In 2025, 16 reports were forwarded to the office, up from 11 the year before.
The new report said the level of suspicious activity reports in 2025 was “in line with expectations and the trend of the previous years.”
It added that refinements to the reporting process and sharper intelligence analysis could also be seen in other indicators of ASIF’s performance in 2025.
The report noted that ASIF’s preventative measures in 2025 included three suspended transactions and operations, up from two in 2024, relating to a total of 522,000 euros (around $612,000).
In 2025, ASIF recorded 196 incoming cross-border cash declarations, amounting to 13.6 million euros (around $16 million), and 328 outgoing declarations totaling 5.1 million euros ($6 million).
In comparison, in 2024, there were 137 incoming declarations worth 21.7 million euros ($25.5 million), and 336 outgoing declarations of 6.1 million euros ($7.3 million).
In the introduction to the new report, ASIF director Federico Antellini Russo wrote: “Following a period of stabilization in 2024, further consolidation has been implemented in the system for reporting potential suspicious activities, and the subsequent financial intelligence activities, in terms of analysis and domestic and international cooperation.”
He added that “during 2025, ASIF significantly increased its activities in support of the transparency of the economic and financial systems of the Holy See and the Vatican City State.”
The ASIF annual report was released on the day that the French Catholic weekly news magazine Le Pèlerin published an interview with Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, who formally stood down as IOR president April 28 after a 12-year tenure.
De Franssu gave a candid account of his efforts to overhaul the institution, which was mired in scandal for much of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
When de Franssu arrived as president in 2014, the IOR had lost almost 150 million euros. Angelo Caloia, who led the institution from 1989 to 2009, was ultimately sentenced in 2021 to nine years in prison for money laundering and embezzlement.
Asked if he had expected to find a high degree of malpractice when he arrived in Rome, de Franssu said: “I didn’t expect such a lack of professionalism, such disregard for the rules, and such a thirst for power among so many people.”
The French asset management executive said he encountered strong opposition to his efforts to overhaul the IOR, but was determined to be “even more resilient than the resistance” to the reforms.
At one point, he said, “a 30-page document attacking me was circulating within the curia, detailing all the alleged misconduct throughout my career.” But with the support of Pope Francis, he was able to transform the institution, he said.
In March 2019, de Franssu triggered the events that led to a major Vatican financial trial, when he refused to authorize a 150 million euro loan from the IOR to the Vatican Secretariat of State, related to a luxury property in London.
He told Le Pèlerin: “For three months, we requested documents, to no avail. We turned down the loan. What a mess. I was summoned to the Secretariat of State. ‘On what grounds are you turning it down?’ I was asked. I replied, ‘In the name of international financial regulations.’”
“We obtained the documents. We immediately realized there had been embezzlement. We alerted the pope. He reacted immediately. He banged his fist on the table.”
Although de Franssu expressed great admiration for Pope Francis, he acknowledged policy disagreements with the Argentine pope.
He said: “We wanted to set up an open-ended investment company (SICAV) in Luxembourg. Subject to European regulations, it ensured that investments would be made in the most transparent, controlled, and monitored manner possible.”
“Some people convinced the Holy Father that we wanted to engage in tax speculation. Which was preposterous. The pope asked us not to create this SICAV. We complied, albeit reluctantly.”
De Franssu said that despite the ups and downs of his tenure he never considered resigning.
“What I do know is that no other position I’ve held elsewhere — not even a more comfortable one — would have fulfilled me as much as this assignment at the Holy See,” he said.
“I took immense pleasure in working alongside Pope Francis. He was a great prophet. And he will be recognized as such; I believe this with all my heart. I had my share of difficult moments with him… But many saints were known to be real troublemakers.”
I can't imagine the growing pains a bank leader must endure to try and take an organization like the IOR and lead it from an old-school, "anything goes" (from a compliance perspective) cash operation into a modern operational risk/compliance risk framework where client safety and ethical asset management/stewardship is most important. I'm glad De Franssu had a smoother experience with the Vatican's management of financial affairs than Libero Milone did.