Vatican Account Frozen - Tourists Must Pay In Cash - NO ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS!

They sure do. They sure better.

This is not the first time, in very recent time, that they have had their bank accounts messed with:



Vatican Embarrassed by Account Closure
Lack of transparency causes JP Morgan Chase to close account

By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne

March 20, 2012


The Vatican suffered a blow to its efforts to have its bank included in the European "white list" of states that comply with international standards against tax fraud and money laundering on Monday when JPMorgan Chase shut the account of the Vatican bank at an Italian branch.

Full: [link to www.advisorone.com]

If you have any doubt about that, read this article on Wikipedia: [link to en.wikipedia.org]



See?

Card payments blocked, cash only in Vatican City

Italy’s central bank has blocked all bank card payments in the Vatican because of a failure to comply with EU safeguards against money laundering, forcing people to pay for services in cash until further notice, Italian media said on Thursday.

It’s “cash only” now for tourists at the Vatican wanting to pay for museum tickets, souvenirs and other services after Italy’s central bank decided to block electronic payments, including credit cards, at the tiny city-state.

Deutsche Bank Italia, which for some 15 years had provided the Vatican with electronic payment services, said Thursday that the Bank of Italy had pulled its authorization after Dec. 31.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that the Italian central bank took the action because the Holy See has not yet fully complied with European Union safeguards against money laundering. That means Italian banks are not authorized to operate within the Vatican, which is in the process of improving its mechanisms to combat laundering.

The Vatican says it is scrambling to solve the problem for thousands of visitors who flock to its very popular Vatican Museums, which include highlights like the Sistine Chapel. The Holy See had no immediate comment on the Bank of Italy’s reported reasons.

Tourists in the long lines Thursday that snaked around Vatican City walls were not happy about the inconvenience.

“It’s certainly a disadvantage,” said Giuseppe Amoruso, an Italian. “Credit cards provide a useful service, which needs to be accessible to everybody, everywhere.”

“A lot of tourists don’t have cash on them, so they have to get euros and don’t know where to get them,” said Fluger William Hunter, an American tourist.

The central bank said a routine inspection found that Deutsche Bank Italia hadn’t sought authorization when it first started providing services at the Vatican. When it finally did, the Bank of Italy turned it down because the Vatican’s banking norms, including measures to combat money laundering, didn’t meet Italy’s more stringent criteria of recent years, a central bank official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because there was no official statement on the case.

LINK: [link to www.france24.com]

The Vatican appears to be protecting themselves from a collapsing euro (or perhaps US dollar) by limiting their exposure.

The Vatican bankrolls the globe. To suggest that their central bank is restricting their electronic transactions for fear of money laundering is laughable.

Look blue, it's a clue...