Emblem of APSA, or Institute for the Works of Religion, otherwise known as the Vatican Bank,
Emblem of APSA, or Institute for the Works of Religion, otherwise known as the Vatican Bank Wikimedia Commons

The lawyers for Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the former head of the Vatican bank who has been sacked after receiving a unanimous vote of no-confidence from his board, has threatened to sue the bank over his "unfair" dismissal.

Gotti Tedeschi was ousted by its lay board in the wake of the "Vatileaks" scandal, in which former Pope Benedict's butler leaked the Vatican's secret papers to the media.

While voting to fire him, the board claimed Gotti Tedeschi was an ineffective and divisive manager.

Gotti Tedeschi said he was ousted because he wanted to bring more transparency to the bank's dealings – an issue that embarrassed the bank for decades.

Gotti Tedeschi had been under investigation over alleged money laundering, but the case against him was shelved after a court ruling, which said he had nothing to do with the day to day operations of the bank and was working to bring it in line with international anti-money-laundering standards.

Gotti Tedeschi's lawyers said in a five-page statement entitled "The Rehabilitation of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi" the judgment proved he was a capable manager who acted in the best interests of the bank and encouraged him to take legal action to clear his name.

The lawyers also threatened legal action, saying the board had committed "grave errors and thus grave damage to the Holy See" by firing their client.

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Paolo Cipriani, the former director general of the bank, formally known as the Institute for Religious Works, and his deputy Massimo Tulli were accused in the money laundering case.

Cipriani and his deputy resigned in July after a Vatican monsignor was arrested over a money-laundering case involving his Vatican bank accounts.

The Vatican bank handles the accounts of Catholic clerics and congregations around the world. It had assets around €6.3bn ($8.7bn, £5.2bn) and 18,900 customers in 2012.

The bank's public imaged got dented due to a number of transparency issues, and the Vatican recently vowed to clean up the bank.