Pope Francis sacks all-Italian Vatican financial watchdog board

POPE Francis has sacked the all-Italian board of a powerful Vatican group. Why did he take such a drastic action?

Pope Francis has sacked the board of the Vatican financial watch dog.

POPE Francis ousted the all-Italian board of the Vatican's financial watchdog agency on Thursday and installed a more international set of experts following clashes between the board and the agency's director.

The four new board members are from Italy, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.

The previous board of the Financial Information Authority had complained that it was being kept in the dark about agency activities since Swiss anti-money-laundering expert Rene Bruelhart arrived as director in 2012. The infighting led Italian Cardinal Attilio Nicora to resign as authority president earlier this year.

The Vatican created the agency in 2010 to supervise and regulate the Holy See's financial activities and share financial information with other countries to comply with international anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing norms. Under Bruelhart's direction, the Holy See has entered into about a dozen financial information-sharing agreements with other countries.

Financial Information Authority director Rene Bruelhart has caused a stir since he arrived at the Vatican.

One of the former Italian board members, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, is also president of the Vatican tribunal, creating a potential conflict of interest given that the independent financial watchdog agency forwards suspected cases of financial crimes to the tribunal's prosecutors for further investigation.

According to the agency's new statutes and broadened mandate, approved in November, board members must have recognised professional competence in legal, economic and financial fields, and be free from any conflict of interest.

In a related appointment Thursday, the Vatican named Tommaso Di Ruzza as Bruelhart's deputy. Di Ruzza is a respected international jurist who held a key role in rewriting the Vatican's anti-money laundering law in 2012 to comply with international norms.