Pope sacks board of Vatican finance watchdog

Pope Francis ousted the all-Italian board of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency yesterday 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.