Pope fires entire board of Vatican financial watchdog

Pope Francis sacked the five-man board of the Vatican’s financial watchdog on Thursday - all Italians - in the latest move to break with an old guard associated with a murky past under his predecessor. The Vatican said the pope named four experts from Switzerland, Singapore, the United States and Italy to replace them on the board of the Financial Information Authority (AIF), the Holy See’s internal regulatory office. The new board includes a woman for the first time. Reformers inside the Vatican had been pushing for the pope, who already has taken a series of steps to clean up Vatican finances, to appoint professionals with an international background to work with Rene Bruelhart, a Swiss lawyer who heads the AIF and who has been pushing for change. Vatican sources said Bruelhart, Liechtenstein’s former top anti-money laundering expert, was chafing under the old board and wanted Francis to appoint global professionals like him.

Bruelhart wanted a board he could work with and it seems the pope has come down on his side and sent the old boy network packing.

—a Vatican source familiar with the situation

Sources

Bush security aide joins Vatican financial watchdog ~ AFP News

Pope shakes up Vatican financial watchdog ~ Al Jazeera

Pope Francis shakes up Vatican financial watchdog ~ Associated Press

Pope fires entire board of Vatican financial watchdog ~ Reuters

Pope sacks board of Vatican’s financial watchdog ~ Reuters

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