VATICAN city - prosecutors ordered the release Wednesday of euro23 million ($33 million) seized from a Bank of Vatican account year last in a money laundering probe.
The Vatican welcomed the move and said that the funds have been ordered returned after the Holy See issued money laundering laws and new counter-terrorism funding to comply with the EU and international standards.
The Italian financial police seized the money in September 2010 as a precautionary measure and placed top two officials involved in the investigation of the Bank, alleging the Bank violates the law while trying to transfer money without identifying the sender or recipient.
The Vatican has denied wrongdoing and said the investigation of the Bank, known as the Institute for religious works or IOR, is the result of a misunderstanding. Officials have not been charged.
The Bank was created to manage the assets placed in his custody and which are intended for religious or charitable Pope's works. It also manages the ATMs in the Vatican City and the pension system for thousands of the Vatican of employees. It is not open to the public, with some 40 000-45 000 accountholders belonging to religious congregations, clergy, representatives of the Vatican and secular with connections to the Vatican.
The newspaper Vatican, the L'Osservatore Romano cited Nello Rossi and Stefano Fava prosecutors as saying they had could verify the "relevant" changes in the institutional standards of the Holy seat which had responded to the problems that require the seizure in the first place.
April 1, the Holy seat new laundering and terrorist financing regulations came into force, including the creation of a new financial supervisory agency.
The authority of financial information is responsible for all financial transactions of the Vatican are transparent and comply with new laws. The watchdog is also sharing information with international financial organizations, a big change for the notoriously private Vatican financial system.
It can freeze the suspicious transactions up to five days and can conduct investigations which, if justified, may be forwarded to prosecutors at the Court of the Vatican.
Prosecutors said the authority had already started to cooperate with his Italian counterpart in "provide sufficient information about a transaction between the Italian and IOR banking institutes which have been the object of attention and analysis its potential illegality," ANSA reported news agency.
"This important fact, with the new standards, allows us to believe that the foreign State has installed a legal regime with the criteria and rules to prevent any repetition of the omissions of the IOR," ANSA quoted the document said.
The Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi said that the Holy See appreciated the move, saying: he "confirms the accuracy with which the IOR is looking to exploit and serious commitment of the Holy see to comply fully with international standards to prevent unlawful in the financial sphere."
Calls placed to the prosecutors were not returned Wednesday, the eve of the major national holiday.
In the 1980s, the IOR was involved in a major scandal which gave rise to a banker, nicknamed "Of God banker" because of its close ties to the Vatican, found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London.
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