Vatican City, Oct 6, 2025 / 09:35 am

Pope Leo XIV has permitted the Holy See’s main financial body to use financial institutions outside the Vatican for its investment activities, reversing Pope Francis’ 2022 instruction to move all funds to the so-called Vatican bank.

In the legal order , published Monday, Leo said the Vatican’s asset management body, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) , should generally use the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR) — better known as the Vatican bank — for its investment activities, unless the competent bodies “deem it more efficient or convenient to use financial intermediaries established in other countries.”

The pope said he consulted experts and evaluated recommendations from the Council for the Economy for the

See Full Page