IANS 8 December 2009, 01:14am IST 

ROME: The Vatican bank is under investigation for suspected money laundering via accounts held at one of Italy’s largest banks, the UniCredit Group, according to the Italian investigative weekly Panorama.

In its latest issue published on Friday, the magazine claims prosecutors are probing transactions totalling 180 million euros handled between 2006 and 2008 by Vatican bank (IOR) accounts held at Unicredit’s branch near the Vatican in Rome’s Via della Conciliazione.

Some of the funds came from the sale and purchase of real estate, and the banking operations allegedly breaking money laundering laws. Prosecutors told the magazine that they would in the next few days to question Unicredit's senior management over the suspect operations.