The Church of England is backing a bid for hundreds of branches being offloaded by Royal Bank of Scotland, raising the prospect of a new, ethical bank on the high street.
The Church Commissioners, who manage the Church's investments, are helping to fund a consortium led by the former banker and trade minister Lord Davies looking to take control of 315 RBS branches.
With investment decisions by the Church Commissioners taking into account the advice of the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group, this would suggest consumers will have a new, ethical banking option if the consortium is successful.
Well, maybe. The report adds:
As well as the Church Commissioners, the consortium contains the private-equity firms Corsair — of which Lord Davies is a partner and vice-chairman — and Centerbridge, plus Standard Life, and the City veteran Lord Rothschild's investment trust, RIT Capital.
And note the CoE's ethical standards are:
No pornography, arms or booze are some of the guidelines by which the Church Commissioners' investment decisions are made.
That's fine but we all now know the big ethical issue is tax. Where is the CoE on that? Before we shout about an ethical bank we'd need an answer on that one, and I'm not holding my breath.
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Who is Lord Davies, and what is his track record?
(just in case he’s another Rev Lord Green)
This bunch have history! I remember them being shamed into dropping the conection with Provident. They are jumping on a shiny new bandwagon.
They could also support Local Credit Unions and local banks which have a history of investing directly in people. BUT the returns are not enough for these profesional investors and because of the way These organisations are set up their influence wouldn’t be as strong.
I agree Chris – I do some voluntary work for a local credit – where is the commitment to supporting local finance initiative! As you say, they want bigger returns which means using financial instruments that cause harm and poverty somewhere else. I will be writing to my local Bishop on this one!
“The Church of England”
I remember reading an article about “The Church of England”, it owns/owned the land on which the Gateshead Metro Centre was built, the retailers pay astronomical amounts of rent!!!. Indeed, I read a few years ago that the retailers in Newcastle upon Tyne pay more rent then retailers in central London, who would have that!!!.
Richard
as you say, the FT headline suggests the CofE is finally going to take a moral stand & try to bring some much needed ethics into the CoL.
The reality is that they’re looking to maximise their returns. If they really think there is nothing wrong with the CoL so long as they don’t invest in “pornography, arms or booze” then they are, unquestionably, on the wrong side.
I’m glad that our Pope is finally trying to do something about corruption in the Vatican.
The CoE need to look at themselves. “You cannot serve both God & Mammon”.
Apparently Lord Davies has some unethical form if this article has any reliability:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/4841648/British-trade-minister-Lord-Davies-should-resign-Liberal-Democrats-say.html