Vatican ‘surprised’ at credit card ban

The director of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, Rene Bruelhart, has said he is “truly surprised” by the Bank of Italy’s suspension of credit card payments in the tiny city-state and insists the Vatican has taken adequate measures to fight money laundering.

Bankitalia said it had no choice but to act on 1 January because the Vatican has no EU-recognised structure for anti-money-laundering measures.