Not even the necrotic nerve centre Of Bronze-Age morality and misogyny known as The Vatican is safe from the Banksters’ grasping paws:
JP Morgan Chase is closing the Vatican bank’s account with an Italian branch of the U.S. banking giant because of concerns about a lack of transparency at the Holy See’s financial institution, Italian newspapers reported.
The move is a blow to the Vatican’s drive to have its bank included in Europe’s “white list” of states that comply with international standards against tax fraud and money-laundering.
You’ll be forgiven if the notion that the larcenous JP Morgan Chase might be concerned about “lack of transparency” causes visions of pots and kettles to dance in your head. JPM’s liver-quivering hypocrisy notwithstanding, my favourite part of this weird little story is the headline, if only because the words “Vatican” and “image” so seldom appear in the same sentence these days…
Some words just don’t play well together. Know what I mean?
Yep- first thing to cross my mind was pot calling the kettle black…or, as my Mother used to say, a pox on both their houses….
I believe the US government put the Vatican on the banking black list. As such, US banks cannot deal with them. JP Morgan is not taking the high moral ground here. They would probably love to still deal with them but they don’t want the gov’t looking too closely at their customers.
BTW. The Vatican bank (thepope banks here!) has always had mucho problems with transparency.
The Vatican has been master of intrigue since before the time of Gregory VII. This isn’t a minor blip on the radar for Popenführer Benny.
Ah, thanks for the backstory, SQ. It’s reassuring to know that the Banksters aren’t going through some weird transformation that allows them to experience the odd pang of decency.
“Popenfuhrer” 😆 😆
Yes, but as SQ points out in the next comment, we need not fear that space aliens have made off with JPM and secretly replaced it with a Credit Union. Apparently it’s the US government behind the closure of Pope Ratzi’s account.