VATICAN BANK

Vatican Bank is a private banking company situated in Vatican City. It is a financial institution run by a Board of Superintendence which reports to a Commission of Cardinals and Pope. The bank was founded by Pope Pius XII in 1942. The President of the bank is Jean-Baptiste Franssu since 9 July 2014. Vatican Bank does not fall in in the definition of private bank as there are no owners or shareholders, but it has been established in the form of a juridical canonical foundation pursuent to its Statues.

The Vatican signed a tax treaty with Italy in 2015 about some clients used it's bank to evade Italian taxes. The bank holds about  5 billion euros, equivalent of $6 billion, of customers assets. Only church institutions, dioceses, diplomats and Vatican employees/ pensioners are allowed to open account in the bank. So it would be considered as the most moral bank in the world. In order to keep it clean a new law enacted by the pope, orders the secretariat of state, the diplomatic and administrative arm of the Holy See, to transfer all it's financial holdings and real estate assets to another office, the Administration of the Patrimony See, which administers the Vatican finances.

Although it is the smallest country in the world in terms of population it's estimated GDP per capita of $21,198 makes Vatican City the  18th wealthiest nation in the world per capita. According to a glabal study of wealth in 2015,  Christians hold the largest amount of wealth (55% of the total wealth of the world), followed by Muslims (5.8%), Hindus (3.3%) and Jews (1.1%). Vatican is estimated to be worth $10 to $15 billion in 2020.

As per a report dated 21 January 2021, there were allegations about corruption related to the bank. A court order allowed  confiscation of about 38 million euros from the bank. Of late, Pope Francis has cleaned the system and made it free from corruptive elements.

Since this bank holds significant role in the financial aspects of Catholic Church, necessary information about this could have been included in the senior classes of Catechism students.

(Indebted to many web sources)

K V George