Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi and the Lugano link

The collapse of 1982

The largest Italian banking failure of the post-war period also passed through Switzerland. Banco Ambrosiano of Milan, a Catholic private bank founded in 1896, had under its chairman Roberto Calvi built a network of foreign subsidiaries. The purchase of the Swiss Banca del Gottardo opened a series of acquisitions and new companies in Luxembourg, the Bahamas and other low-tax jurisdictions, while offshore companies in Panama, Peru and Nicaragua were linked to the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (IOR), the Vatican bank headed by Archbishop Paul Marcinkus. These offshore entities, heavily indebted to the Ambrosiano group, used the funds channelled to them for further loans or to buy shares of Banco Ambrosiano itself, which supported its price. To cover the debts of the offshore companies controlled by the IOR, Calvi obtained letters of patronage from the Vatican bank.¹ When the Bank of Italy and the Milan prosecutors began to examine the foreign network, Calvi was arrested on 21 May 1981 for currency offences, tried and convicted, but he was soon released pending appeal and resumed control of the bank. On 18 June 1982, as the group was about to collapse, he was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London. Banco Ambrosiano was placed in liquidation on 6 August 1982. On the same day a consortium of public and private banks provided new capital of 600 billion lire for the Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano, which took over its business.² The debts of the offshore companies covered by the IOR's letters of patronage were estimated at about USD 1.2 billion. In a settlement with the creditors of the Ambrosiano group, the IOR agreed, without recognizing any liability, to pay about USD 250 million, which it called a "voluntary contribution".³ Italian criminal proceedings for fraudulent bankruptcy followed. The first-instance judgment of 18 April 1992 convicted, among others, the head of the masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2), Licio Gelli, together with Flavio Carboni, Francesco Pazienza and Umberto Ortolani. The appeal court reduced the sentences in 1996, and the Corte di Cassazione confirmed the outcome in 1998. The circumstances of Calvi's death were examined in several inquests and trials. In 2005 Gelli himself was placed under investigation for the murder. A trial in Rome of five defendants ended in 2007 with acquittals, which were confirmed on appeal.⁴

Lugano: the Banca del Gottardo

In Ticino the Ambrosiano group was represented by the Banca del Gottardo in Lugano. Founded in 1957 with a capital of CHF 2 million to serve Italian savers, the bank was acquired by Calvi's group in the 1970s. Its purchase marked the start of the foreign expansion described above, which made the Lugano bank the first link in a chain of foreign companies.⁵ After the collapse the Banca del Gottardo passed to the Japanese Sumitomo Bank and remained under Japanese ownership through the 1980s. In 1999 it was acquired by the Rentenanstalt, today Swiss Life, which sold it in 2008 to the Banca della Svizzera Italiana (BSI), where it was absorbed.⁶ The episode illustrated a risk that would recur: a Swiss bank owned by a foreign group could become part of a structure whose purpose was decided by the parent abroad. Swiss supervision at the time focused on the solvency of the Swiss entity. Questions about the purpose of the transactions it executed for its parent fell outside the supervisor's view.

Notes

1. "Banco Ambrosiano", Italian Wikipedia, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banco_Ambrosiano (consulted as a last resort; "l'acquisto dell'elvetica Banca del Gottardo diede inizio a un'ampia campagna di acquisizioni"; offshore entities "reinvestivano i fondi in ulteriori finanziamenti o nell'acquisto di azioni dello stesso Banco"; "Calvi richiese delle lettere di patronage (garanzia di copertura del debito) relative a società offshore"). ↩
2. "Banco Ambrosiano", Italian Wikipedia (as above) (arrest on 21 May 1981 "per reati valutari"; Calvi found hanged on 18 June 1982; liquidation and capital of 600 billion lire for the Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano on 6 August 1982). ↩
3. "Banco Ambrosiano", Italian Wikipedia (as above) (offshore debts of about USD 1.2 billion; "La banca vaticana, senza ammettere alcuna responsabilità, pagò volontariamente, definendolo contributo volontario, 250 milioni di dollari"). ↩
4. "Banco Ambrosiano", Italian Wikipedia (as above) (first-instance judgment of 18 April 1992 against Gelli, Carboni, Pazienza and Ortolani; appeal judgment of 10 June 1996; Corte di Cassazione, 1998); "Gelli, Licio", Enciclopedia on line, Treccani, https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/licio-gelli/ (conviction "per la bancarotta fraudolenta del Banco Ambrosiano"; "Indagato per l'omicidio di R. Calvi (2005)"). ↩
5. Associazione Bancaria Ticinese, Un secolo di storia bancaria ticinese (Lugano: ABT, 2020), https://www.abti.ch/sito/wp-content/uploads/Un-secolo-di-storia-bancaria-ticinese-12-14-19.pdf (foundation in 1957 with a capital of CHF 2,000,000); "Banca del Gottardo", Italian Wikipedia, https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banca_del_Gottardo (consulted as a last resort; Italian savers as clients; acquisition by Banco Ambrosiano in the 1970s); "Banco Ambrosiano", Italian Wikipedia (as above). ↩
6. "Banca del Gottardo", Italian Wikipedia (as above) (Sumitomo after the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano; Rentenanstalt in 1999; "nel 2008 fu ceduta alla Banca della Svizzera Italiana, che procedette ad incorporarla"); Associazione Bancaria Ticinese, Un secolo di storia bancaria ticinese (as above) (Japanese owners "negli anni ottanta"). On BSI see Chapter E.I. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.