The scandal at the Vatican bank
It was the bankers’ fear of being tarnished by their links with the Vatican bank after the credit crisis – and fears of fines from emboldened regulators – that led them to take steps that forced it to clean up its act.
.. As much as 25 per cent of the bank’s business is done in cash – a feature that regulators said raised red flags for money laundering.
.. Popes Benedict and John Paul II both had their bedrooms two floors above the bank
.. Deutsche did what regulators had hoped it would. On January 1 2013, a peak holiday time, there were no ATMs functioning anywhere inside Vatican City. Lines of visitors to the Sistine Chapel were unable to enter unless they paid in cash. “The message sent was simple: if you want to participate in the modern world, you have to adopt modern rules,” says a senior banker at another correspondent bank.