The President of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, has resigned from the post after the bank's Board of Directors unanimously passed a no-confidence vote against his leadership, the Vatican said in a statement issued late on Thursday.
Vatican said the no-confidence vote was triggered by Tedeschi's failure to fulfill "various fundamentally important functions of his office," adding: "The Board passed a unanimous no-confidence vote against the President... and believes the action is important to maintain the vitality of the bank."
Separately, the bank's Director Board said in a statement that it was now looking "forward to search for a new and excellent President who will help the institute rebuild relationships between the institute and the financial community based on mutual respect based on internationally accepted banking standards."
Tedeschi was accused of failing to keep the Board sufficiently informed about the bank, as well as leaking documents to serve his personal and political interests. Vatican has announced a criminal investigation into the leaks by its own police force. Notably, the development comes as Moneyval, the Council of Europe body for curbing money laundering, prepares to rule in early July whether the Vatican meets international standards on financial transactions.
Tedeschi, a trained economist, was named President of the Vatican Bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), in 2009. He will now be replaced to the post by Deputy President Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz until a new President assumes charge.
Italian authorities had initiated an investigation against Tedeschi and IOR Director-General Paolo Cipriani in September 2010 to determine whether they violated European Union money-laundering rules.
Italian prosecutors also temporarily seized EUR 23 million of Vatican bank assets as part of their investigation into claims that the two senior Vatican Bank officials had violated anti-money laundering laws by failing to disclose information about the bank's financial transactions.
The investigation was launched after the Bank of Italy's financial intelligence unit informed tax authorities in Rome about two suspicious transactions between the Vatican Bank and two different Italian banks.
The investigation reportedly focused on two wire transfers the Vatican Bank had asked a small Italian bank called Credito Artigianato to carry out, including the transfer of EUR 20 million to JP Morgan in Frankfurt and EUR 3 million to another Italian bank, Banca del Fucino.
When the Italian investigation against Tedeschi and Cipriani was initiated in 2010, the Holy See said it was "perplexed and surprised by the initiatives of the Rome prosecutors." Vatican also expressed its "maximum confidence in the president and in the chief executive of the IOR."
The IOR manages funds for the Vatican and its religious institutions across the world, and accepts deposits only from top Catholic Church officials and connected religious organizations.
The IOR last faced legal scrutiny in 1982 when its then Governor Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was implicated in a scandal that led to the murders of two of its top executives, one of whom was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London. However, Archbishop Marcinkus was never arrested.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.