Pope Francis spoke furiously against the bankers calling them “greedy”.

He told them to stop playing financial games with the price of corn, meat and rice and likened their tactic to stealing food from the poor.

As he explained, these games can cause increases in food prices and thus trigger hunger periods for certain areas of the planet.

“It is increasingly intolerable that financial markets are shaping the destiny of peoples rather than serving their needs, or that the few derive immense wealth from financial speculation while the many are deeply burdened by the consequences,” Pope Francis said at an investors ethics’ seminar at the Vatican.