The Church Investors Group (CIG), representing church organisations with combined assets of around £26bn (€31bn), is calling for more faith-aligned investments, as it publishes a guide that encourages asset managers investing on their behalf to manage their assets in a way that is aligned with Christian values.
The guide — Working with your investment managers: A guide to support church investors considering faith-consistent approaches — comes as Christian leaders express a desire to rapidly scale the faith-consistent investing market.
“As a coalition of Church investors with combined investment assets of over £26bn, we have faith in sustainable investment; but we also want our asset managers to have more room for faith,” said Stephen Beer, CIG chair of trustees.
“Church investors should not have to make do with investment solutions which are not designed with Christian faith in mind. Our aim is to help members form long-term relationships with asset managers, built on mutual understanding, that enable both portfolios and humanity to flourish,” said Beer.
The guide offers CIG members – which include the Church of England Pensions Board, the Methodist Ministers’ Pension Trust and the United Reformed Church Ministers’ Pension Trust – practical ways to ensure that their investments are not contrary to their beliefs, while also seeking to invest in a way that supports positive social or environmental impact, according to the group.
Historically, the CIG has also taken tough stances on climate and executive pay.
Room for faith
According to Beer, the role of Christian ethics, as well as risk management, is important for Church investors.
“This new guidance is designed to empower Church and other Christian-based asset owners to think about and describe their ethical or faith-based investment perspectives and help them with a framework to put those Christian ethical perspectives at the heart of how they assess, select, appoint and monitor managers,” he added.
Rory Sullivan, chief executive officer of Chronos Sustainability, who co-authored the guide, said that helping Christian investors set clear expectations for the asset managers who enact their mandates was at the heart of the project’s framework.
He hoped the guidance “helps faith-consistent investors send a loud signal to the wider global investment markets, and while designed for Christian organisations, this guide should also prove invaluable to any mission-based organisation seeking to align its investment to its mission and values”.
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