VATICAN CITY
ABS-CBN (Philippines)

Reuters
Posted at 03/09/2014

ROME – Pope Francis named top laymen from the worlds of finance and economics on Saturday to a new Vatican Council for the Economy, intended to improve scrutiny of the Holy See’s scandal-plagued accounts.

The creation of the 15-member council is a major step in bringing lay people into the Vatican, and reflects a drive by Francis to make changes to an establishment often seen as murky and secretive.

The seven non-religious figures in the council include Maltese economist Joseph Zahra, former director of the Central Bank of Malta, and France’s Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, chairman of mergers and acquisitions advisory firm INCIPIT and former head of the European Fund and Asset Management Association.

Spanish University of Madrid economist Enrique Llano Cueto, German former McKinsey & Company partner Jochen Messemer, and Italian University of Messina Business Administration professor Francesco Vermiglio were…