After the death of his banking rival Agostino Chigi and the sack of Rome in 1527, only a few very solid banks had the capital to prevent economic chaos. Competing with fierce Genoese bankers and the Germans Fugger and Welser, the Strozzi, Salviati and Altoviti became the leading Florentine and Papal curia bankers, given the opportunity to participate in massive credit transactions, controlling an enlarging sphere of papal finance.