Vatican’s IOR publishes its first Annual Report

Vatican City, 01 October 2013: The Holy See’s Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), or Vatican Bank as it’s commonly called, published on Tuesday the first annual report in its 125 year history. The lengthy report contains description of business activities from 2012 and the first 8 months of 2013, together with detailed financial statements, including one from the external auditing company KPMG.

Talking to Vatican Radio’s Fr. Bernd Hagenkord, the President of the IOR, Ernst von Freyberg said that “the accounts of IOR have been audited for a long time, always by reputable international accounting firms. In 2013 they were audited by KPMG. In itself that is nothing unusual for the Institute, it is unusual that we are ready to publish.”

When asked about whether there are any new facts in the report, Freyberg said: “What is new are the details. The most surprising thing will be, how unsurprising it is. You see a rather conservatively managed financial institution safeguarding assets, investing in very conservative investments like government bonds and bank deposits. And you will see an institution highly capitalized. At the end of last year our equity ratio was 15% which is way above comparable financial institutions would have.”

Whether the publication of the report is part of a policy of transparency, Freyberg said: “That is a key element. Since march this year we have embarked on a strategy on three pillars. One is to reach out to the media and engage in a direct and open dialogue, telling the facts as they are in a systematic way. This includes that we now have a spokesperson’s office for the IOR. The second element is to create a website which can serve as an authoritative source on facts about the Institute. The third element is to publish the annual report.”

When asked as to whom is the report written, Freyberg said: “First of all we address ourselves to the Church. There are about one billion Catholics in the world, who have a right to know, what this part of the holy see does. They also have a right to understand how we contribute to the wellbeing of the Church around the world. The second group is our partners, i.e. our correspondent banks who rely on us being a financially sound and well managed business-partner. The third group is – as you rightfully say – the media, financial analysts who may have an interest, and the public at large.”

When asked about the next step ahead, Freyberg said: “we have gone a long way on transparency and compliance, the next important for step is to look at our service to the client and see how we can improve, the products we offer, the services we offer them.”
Source: VR Sedoc