Services
On behalf of its clients, the Institute carries out financial activities authorised by the ASIF, and offers the following services: acceptance of deposits, asset management, certain custodial functions, international payment transfers through correspondent banks, and holding salary and pension accounts of employees of the Holy See and Vatican City State.
Credit activity is residual and strictly subject to the limits of the ASIF authorization and constraints established by the Board of Superintendence.
No funding activities are carried out on the interbank market and IOR does not issue, underwrite or place debt securities.
Accounts opened at the IOR by authorised customers meet the requirements of the legislation in force in Vatican City State on preventing and combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Customers are provided with services in IOR offices located in Vatican City State. The Institute has no branches.
Customers served by the Institute include:
a) Sovereign Institutions of the Holy See and Vatican City State and related entities, nunciatures and apostolic delegations, embassies and diplomats accredited to the Holy See;
b) Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Dioceses and other Vatican canonical or civil entities as legal persons; clerics and members of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, employees and retirees of the Vatican as natural persons.
The IOR’s customers have a common characteristic, which is that they are part of and serve the Catholic Church.
The IOR does not accept as customers, individuals or institutions, without a close relationship to the Holy See and Catholic Church.
Strict control processes are in place to ensure that this rule is adhered to at all times.
Most of the IOR’s clients are active in missions or perform charitable works at institutions such as schools, hospitals or refugee camps.
The Catholic Church, through its institutions involved in missionary activities and charitable works, is present throughout the world, even in countries with very basic infrastructure and underdeveloped banking and payment systems.
In such cases, the IOR’s services are particularly valuable. For customers located in these areas, the IOR is a bedrock, affirming itself as a trusted institution able to provide on-site services otherwise lacking or absent. This is even more evident in those geographic areas with high levels of political and/or financial instability.
As at 31 December 2023, the IOR’s clients totalled 12,361 (2022: 12,759); there was a slight decrease due to the ex officio closures carried out by the Institute for different reasons, such as: loss of requirements; non-compliance with contractual rules applicable to the accounts; non-use for extended periods of time and closure by seminarians or clerics who returned to their countries.
The opening and/or maintenance of accounts at the Institute continues to be highly selective, in order to safeguard the Institute’s service mission, and monitoring is carried out very frequently.
Measured by assets entrusted, IOR clients as at 31 December 2023, comprised: religious orders (Congregations - Associations of the faithful - seminaries, colleges, universities - monasteries and convents) (48%), departments of the Roman Curia, Holy See and Vatican City State Offices and nunciatures (28%), episcopal conferences, dioceses and parishes (9%), Cardinals, bishops and clergy (7%), Vatican employees and pensioners (6%) and foundations and other entities under Canon Law (2%).
Total Client assets managed by the Institute as at 31 December 2023 reached EUR 5.4 bn (2022: EUR 5.2bn): client deposit was EUR 1.6bn (2022: EUR 1.8bn), asset under management was EUR 3.0bn (2022: EUR 2.9bn) and asset under custody was EUR 0.8bn (2022: EUR 0.5bn).