Put people, not capital, at the center, Pope tells Italian bankers

May 16, 2026

Pope Leo XIV received a group of leaders and employees of Italian banks this morning and encouraged them to put people at the center of their concerns.

“Your financial institutions have promoted, in various ways, a just sharing and redistribution of wealth among individuals, businesses and institutions, making its benefits more accessible to all and valuing the contribution of each,” Pope Leo said during the audience, which took place in Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. “This is a social function that fits well within the mission entrusted by God to humanity to be stewards of creation.”

“The spirit of your foundations serves as a reminder to all, in particular, that it is not capital that enters a bank in the first instance, but people, and that behind the numbers there are men and women, families in need of help,” the Pope continued, adding:

For this reason, in a context where the high level of computerization of tools imposes increasingly elaborate and artificial intermediaries in interpersonal relationships, you, as heirs to a great tradition of human care, are called upon to ensure that those who access your services do not feel abandoned to the coldness of algorithmic systems—however efficient and mathematically precise they may be—but that, behind the technical tools, they perceive, today as in the past, the presence of people ready to listen and keen to do good ...

Faithful to your origins, never forget charity; on the contrary, make it increasingly the guiding principle of your strategic choices!

 

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Further information:

• To Executives and Employees of various Italian Banking Institutions (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 5/16/26)
• Audience with Management and Employees of several Italian Banking Institutes, 16.05.2026 (Holy See Press Office, 5/16/26)