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Pope replaces Vatican bank managers
Telegraph (UK)
July 9, 2014
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/the-pope/10956207/Pope-replaces-Vatican-bank-managers.html
[with video]
Pope Francis replaces the board and executives at the Vatican Bank after a year of reorganisation after more than 2,000 accounts were blocked and profit dropped 97%
The Vatican on Wednesday named a French businessman to head up its scandal-plagued bank as part of a radical overhaul of the Holy See's economic framework ordered by Pope Francis.
Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, former chief executive of Investco Europe, will lead a newly streamlined bank following a year of internal investigations which resulted in the closure or suspension of thousands of suspicious, ineligible or inactive accounts.
"Our ambition is to become something of a model for financial management rather than cause for occasional scandal," Vatican finance minister Cardinal George Pell told journalists.
Franssu himself said he was "looking forward to continuing the efforts of transparency."
The appointment comes just a day after the bank said profits last year had been all but wiped out in its efforts to clean up its accounts.
A team of financial experts - including Franssu and an American consultancy firm - have been preparing the ground for the reforms since last summer, when Francis vowed to make the Vatican's public finances fully transparent following decades of scandal and intrigue.
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