The bank account of the Apostolic Nunciature to Great Britain has been closed by HSBC.The nunciature is among 40 London-based diplomatic missions to have their accounts closed by the bank as part of a strategy to reduce HSBC's "risk."
Other embassies to have their accounts closed include Benin and Papua New Guinea with the head of the UK's Consular Corps, Bernard Silver, saying the decision had created "havoc."
The nunciature has now set up a new account with a different bank.
In a statement, a spokesman for HSBC said it "has been applying a rolling programme of strategic assessments to all its businesses since May 2011, and our services for embassies are no exception. We do not comment on individual customer relationships."