The Vatican bank was caught in a money-laundering row in 2010 after Italian prosecutors uncovered allegedly suspicious financial activity within the organisation.

Bank chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and his deputy Paolo Cipriani were investigated after financial police seized 23million euros from a Vatican bank account.

It was claimed that even as the bank was claiming to tackle money-laundering, it broke the law by trying to transfer money without identifying the sender or recipient, or what the money was being used for.