Pope Francis has appointed former Bank of Valletta chairman Joseph FX Zahra chairman of another commission of inquiry he set up to look into the Vatican's finances.

He has named the eight-member committee to recommend ways to fix the Holy See's economic and administrative shortcomings.

The Vatican said the commission's aims were to "simplify and rationalise" the Holy See administration.

The commission, made up of seven lay people and a monsignor, will recommend reforms to avoid wasting money, improve transparency, better administer the Vatican's vast real estate holdings and ensure correct accounting principles.

It is the third such commission Pope Francis has created since being named pope.

In April he named eight cardinals to help him govern and study an overall reform of the Vatican bureaucracy. The second commission is investigating the scandal-plagued Vatican bank, whose top two managers resigned amid a widening money-laundering probe by Italian magistrates.