Pope Francis has intensified the fight against corruption in the Vatican, strengthening laws to counter "money laundering, the financing of terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction".
The short "Motu Proprio", a decree of Francis's own initiative, strengthens the supervision of financial transactions "in response to a recommendation of the Moneyval Committee", the European watchdog that carried out a review of the Vatican bank last year.
The decree is the latest in a series of bold moves on the part of the pontiff to clean up the institution's murky financial image.
"It is a means of ensuring the road (towards transparency) continues," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said in a press conference.
"In today's world, it is all about resisting increasingly insidious forms of financial criminality. We have to be equal to the challenges in order to protect legality, and not be left behind."
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What has been hailed as a potential revolution by many religious watchers began with the appointment mid-June of one of the Pope's trusted allies to oversee management of the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) -- as the bank is known.
The 76-year-old pontiff has also installed a special commission tasked with investigating the bank and reporting their findings directly back to him personally.
The IOR, which does not lend money, handles funds for Vatican departments, Catholic charities and congregations, and has a troubled history.
It was the main shareholder of the Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in 1982 amid accusations of laundering money for the Sicilian mafia.
The chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi -- dubbed "God's Banker" in the press -- was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London that year in a suspected murder by mobsters.
