Earlier in April Credito Italiano, another retail bank, and Unicredito, a trinity of savings banks, announced that they will join forces.

ECONOMIST: Italian banking

The tax police seized 23m euros that the Vatican Bank had tried to transfer from a small Italian bank called Credito Artigianato.

BBC: Vatican Bank 'investigated over money-laundering'

Credito Italiano was Italy's first bank privatisation, at the end of 1993.

ECONOMIST: Italian banking