Pope Benedict
XVI appointed Attilio Cardinal Nicora, as president of the newly
created Financial Information Authority (FIA). Until now, the cardinal has been the
head of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See. Also appointed on
Wednesday were the members of the executive council of the FIA:
- Claudio
Bianchi, former professor of accounting at Rome’s La Sapienza University; - Marcello Condemi, associate professor of economic law at Rome’s G. Marconi
University; - Giuseppe Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, rector of Rome’s
LUMSA University; - Cesare Testa, former president of the Central
Institute for the Sustenance of the Clergy.
Surprisingly, no North
Americans were appointed.
The Financial Information Authority was formed on December
30 as an “autonomous and independent body with the specific task of
preventing and countering the laundering of money and the financing of
terrorism with respect to each subject, both legal and physical, entity and
institution of whatever nature, of Vatican City State, of the Dicasteries of
the Roman Curia and of all the other institutions and entities dependent on the
Holy See.”
