Church reviews commandments on investment ethics
THE Church of England has tightened up its ethical investment guidelines after the scandal over its stake in Wonga.
But its new rules do not stop it taking a stake in a payday lender again or even in companies that supply military equipment or sell cigarettes.
The Church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group, which outlines the basis on which the church manages its £5.5billion investment portfolio, has changed the terms under which funds are invested.
Its new guidelines will allow it to put money directly into a company that does things of which the Church disapproves – such as offering highinterest loans, selling tobacco or promoting gambling – if the ‘unethical’ business accounts for 10 per cent or less of its total turnover. Previously, it allowed itself to do so if it accounted for up to 25 per cent of turnover.
Edward Mason, secretary to the group said: ‘Without revenue thresholds you can get perverse outcomes from exclusion policies.’
He cited Volkswagen, which as well as civilian vehicles also makes trucks for the German army, and Tesco, which sells tobacco. Both are firms that do things of which the Church does not approve, but it continues to invest in them.
The Church will also still invest in pooled schemes where money goes into a fund and it may not have control over where the money ends up. A pooled investment led to it holding a stake in Wonga, which led to an embarrassed Archbishop Canterbury Justin Welby waging his own war on the firm.
‘We have never wanted to invest in Wonga; the Commissioners would much rather we weren’t in it,’ said Mason.
‘Indirect investments are made by pooled funds and, in these circumstances, there could be exposure to investments we do not want to make.’