It has emerged that Peter Sutherland, the chairman of Goldman Sachs International, has been acting as an unpaid adviser to the Vatican Bank, writes Christopher Lamb.
Last Saturday, the Financial Times reported – and The Tablet independently verified – that Mr Sutherland, a former European Commissioner and a practising Catholic, travelled to Rome to meet
with Pope Francis’ advisory group of eight cardinals. In a behind-closed-doors meeting, he urged the cardinals to make the bank more transparent.
The Vatican Bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), has struggled to meet the demands of regulators in recent years, coming under scrutiny by Moneyval, the Council of Europe body that evaluates anti money-laundering measures. It has also been plagued by scandals, most recently involving Mgr Nunzio Scarano who is on trial for corruption and attempted money laundering at the IOR.
(See The Church in the World, page 30.)