The Pope has approved by means of a Chirograph, dated June 25 and published this June 30, the new Statute of the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (ASIF), the Holy See’s anti-money laundering body. The reform eliminates at a stroke the Presidency and the Board of Directors created in 2020, places a single Director appointed by the Pope at the head of the organization, and transfers all accountability to the Council for the Economy.
The Secretariat of State, previously present in the body’s structure, has practically disappeared from the text. Sources familiar with Vatican financial affairs warn InfoVaticana that the new design raises serious questions about the supervisor’s real independence.
The most striking change in the new Statute is structural. The text approved by Francis in December 2020 organized the ASIF around three organs: a President, a Board of Directors appointed by the Pope—which approved strategic guidelines, regulations, and budgets—and an executive Directorate. That scheme, essentially inherited from the former AIF established by Benedict XVI in 2010, guaranteed a collegiate instance between the Director and political power.
The new Statute eliminates both figures. Article 5 states that the Authority “is governed and represented by a Director,” appointed by the Supreme Pontiff ad quinquennium, assisted by a Deputy Director proposed by the Director himself (art. 6). There is no President, no collegiate governing body, no internal counterweight of equivalent rank. All institutional responsibility is concentrated in a single person appointed directly from above.
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