Photo ~ Mons. Ettore Balestrero

Vatican passes key financial transparency test, but gets poor grades for financial watchdog

Vatican Undersecretary for the Relations with States, Mons. Ettore Balestrero, who heads the Vatican delegation to the so-called Moneyval committee, speaks during a press conference at the Vatican Wednesday, July 18, 2012.

The Vatican has passed a key European financial transparency test, but received poor grades for the effectiveness of its new financial watchdog agency and for the ability of its bank to track suspicious transactions.

The report showed the Vatican had received compliant or largely compliant grades on nine of the 16 "key and core" internationally recognized recommendations to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.

"We take both the praise and criticism contained in the report with seriousness," said Mons. Balestrero. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

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