The Vatican is not a bank, not an investment fund or a multinational corporation.
Yet it still has billions of euros’ worth of assets to manage, thousands of properties to look after, and a financial system which has taken years to move past scandals and opaque accounting.
The Pope has now included a number of individuals who have serious experience in the private sector in one of the bodies which is responsible for keeping an eye on that system.
On August 11 Leo named new members to the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, among them an executive from UBS, the chief executive of a financial-services firm in Liechtenstein and other lay professionals together with four cardinals.
The appointments might appear to be ordinary changes in Vatican personnel.
They are more interesting in that way.
Leo is introducing people who are knowledgeable about wealth management, investment banking, insurance, and corporate finance into an organisation which has been set up particularly to oversee the way in which the Holy See manages its money, at a time when the Vatican’s assets are increasing but its basic operating finances are still under pressure.
A UBS executive is joining Vatican financial oversight
Elena Wettstein Principato is one of the new members and is currently in charge of sales management for Europe International at UBS Group.
The Holy See Press Office states that Wettstein Principato has worked in the field of wealth management and financial services in Italy, the United States and Switzerland; she also possesses a master’s degree in economics with a specialization in accounting and financial analysis.
Princess Gisela of Liechtenstein was likewise made the chief executive of Industrie und Finanzkontor Etablissement and has worked in investment banking and engineering in London, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland.
The Pope also appointed Denis Duverne, who has a great deal of experience in the insurance and financial fields, and Paolo Nusiner, an economist who has occupied senior positions in the industry, in Catholic publishing, academia and healthcare.
It’s not just a matter of enclosing church officials with more businesspeople.
The Council for the Economy does in fact have real responsibility.
When he set it up in 2014, Pope Francis assigned the council responsibility for the administrative and financial aspects of the Roman Curia, which consists of institutions associated with both the Holy See and the Vatican City State. The council’s structure was intentionally arranged so as to include not only senior church officials but also lay people who have professional expertise in finance. (Holy See)
At this stage Leo is deciding which of them will take up some of those seats.
The fact that he makes those choices shows that practical financial experience is important.
The Vatican has assets, but it also has a money problem
The timing is important.
In 2025, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, which is the Vatican’s asset-management body, stated that its net assets had risen by €89 million to a total of €2.686 billion.
It sounds strong when the operating figures are looked at.
The operating surplus of APSA dropped from €62.2 million in 2024 to €22.8 million in 2025, a fall of over 60 per cent, the Vatican stating that the previous year had been aided by a one-off restructuring of its investment portfolio.
The reason why the balance sheet was rising was mainly due to the value of the assets already in possession.
The net wealth of the Vatican was increased by €40.8 million as a result of the revaluation of its gold holdings, by €39.2 million because of higher real-estate values and by €16.3 million from its securities. Moreover, the Vatican has responsibility for almost 5,500 properties around the world.
That makes for a strange financial situation.
Although the Vatican has a number of assets such as property, securities and physical gold, it still needs them in order to generate an adequate income to help pay for the operations of the Holy See.
In 2025 APSA passed on €22.7 million to the Holy See’s operations.
Archbishop Giordano Piccinotti, who is the president of APSA, stated to Reuters that the aim is “not to maximise profit but to preserve and strengthen the Church’s patrimony”.
That distinction matters.
The Vatican cannot just act like a hedge fund seeking the highest possible return; it must also take account of the Church’s ethical principles, its institutional requirements and its willingness to accept financial risk.
This does not mean that the need for professional management is eliminated merely by avoiding excessive risk.
It may make it more important.
Leo is inheriting a financial system Francis spent years rebuilding
Vatican finance has a complicated past.
During his time as Pope, Francis made considerable efforts to reorganise the way the Holy See manages its investments, budgets and financial reporting; the Council for the Economy was included in this reform together with the Secretariat for the Economy and the Office of the Auditor General.
Reforms came after several years during which the Vatican’s finances had drawn criticism for their lack of transparency and when major scandals occurred, such as the failed investment in London property which led to a Vatican fraud trial. According to Reuters, this incident helped to promote a greater emphasis on the professional management of Vatican real estate.
Leo has not merely copied each of the financial decisions made by Francis.
In October 2025 he ended the Vatican bank’s exclusive control over investments, and thus enabled the various departments of the Vatican to make use of external financial intermediaries if the competent authorities judged it to be more efficient or convenient. However, the general Vatican investment policies stayed in effect.
The decision together with this week’s appointments suggests an interesting course.
Leo is willing to keep financial oversight but at the same time grant Vatican institutions access to a broader range of professional expertise and greater flexibility.
The Vatican is starting to look more like an institutional investor
That could be the main story.
The Holy See is fundamentally unlike a pension fund, a sovereign wealth fund or a university endowment since its aim is religious not commercial.
Its financial difficulties, nevertheless, are very obvious.
It has real estate which has to be managed efficiently; it holds bonds, stocks and gold; it has operating expenses; it needs to have sustainable income; it has to control risk; it has to prevent misconduct, and it must ensure that the financial decisions taken today do not result in liabilities which future church leaders will find it difficult to pay.
Before Leo was elected, the senior cardinals were openly talking about whether the Vatican’s finances could be sustained. In April 2025 Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who was in charge of the Council for the Economy, laid out the financial problems and put forward proposals with the aim of ensuring that the Vatican’s economic arrangements could properly support the work of the papacy. (Vatican News)
Leo has now reconfirmed Marx’s position as coordinator of the council and has also added some new expertise from the private sector.
The Pope is not going to turn the Vatican into Wall Street.
Yet it seems that he realizes faith by itself is not sufficient to manage a balance sheet worth several billion euros.
The Vatican took many years to draw up rules in order to control its money.
Leo’s next challenge could be getting that money to work better without losing sight of the reason it is there.