SWITZERLAND
finews.com
As the Pope’s chief financial regulator, Rene Bruelhart has spent the last four years cleaning up after a series of scandals at the Vatican Bank. He speaks to finews.com about his new role at a Swiss mortgage lender.
In a windowless multi-purpose hall 40 kilometers west of Zurich, 1,823 shareholders of Hypothekarbank Lenzburg convene for the Swiss regional bank’s annual meeting.
The mood is informal, unpretentious, and festive: local musicians entertain shareholders before the event begins, CEO Marianne Wildi delivers part of her speech in colloquial Swiss-German, and shareholders cheer approvingly when the bank’s chairman, Gerhard Hanhart, takes a jab at the million-franc paydays awarded to his peers at UBS.
The folksy Aargau setting couldn’t be more different from St. Peters Square, where Rene Bruelhart spends much of his time as head of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority – effectively, the Holy See’s financial regulator.
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