Vatican Is 'Cash Only', Bank Blocks Electronic Payments Over Money Laundering Concerns

www.huffingtonpost.com...

papal facepalm

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.

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.

Last summer, the Holy See passed a key European financial transparency test but received failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and its bank, formally called the Institute for Religious Works.

you out there that have looked into the Vaticans' financial operations know that there is a whole lot more that being reported here.

good thing that they are only a small 'country' and tourists can go across the street to Italy and use the ATM's over there!

To be brutally honest, I would rather have money-laundering than to have every single purchase I make registered and then have targeted advertisements flung at me all the time.

I would rather have no money at all, but that's still just a pipe dream for now. Maybe when people start looking at money for real again and see it slipping through their fingers for no good reason at all, they might start respecting it more. Plus, you can't go into debt if you haven't got the cash anyway. It takes greater stupidity to visit a loan shark.