Creating a new FCI ecosystem for Catholic/Christian investors
Lessons from our three successful Faithful Finance courses in 2024, plans for 2025
A fantastic FCI Interest Group forum on Islamic finance
Highlights from our FCI research posts
Our core mission: Supporting faiths to align their investments with their values, creating positive impact
As I reflect on my first four months as Executive Chair of FaithInvest, I have been impressed by our team's dedication to our core mission of supporting faith organisations to align their investments with their values, creating positive impact for both people and planet.
Our focus remains clear: we are here to help faith organisations optimise their investable assets in ways that not only meet their financial objectives but also address the systemic challenges facing our world.
Dave Zellner
Executive Chair, FaithInvest
Through our work with faith groups on investment governance, we strive to build an economy that strengthens communities, creates shared wealth across generations, and safeguards our natural world.
Looking ahead, I am energised by several exciting initiatives we have planned for 2025. We look forward to sharing more details in our January newsletter.
With all good wishes to you all for a very peaceful and blessed festive season!
Creating a new FCI ecosystem for Christian investors
Last month's Mensuram Bonam conference in London, UK, was an incredibly inspiring and energising event, bringing together 90 financial sector leaders and faith leaders from 16 countries, as well as other organisations including FaithInvest. In the news story we wrote afterwards for the FaithInvest website, we said it marked a major step forward for Catholic investors.
That sense of excitement was confirmed by the actions and resolutions arising from the summit, which we believe will significantly accelerate faith-consistent investing (FCI), not just in the Catholic Church but across the wider Christian world. It's incredibly exciting and we wholeheartedly welcome it! Key actions include:
A new Catholic market index is to be developed by Bloomberg Index Services
A new non-profit consortium will be established to guide Catholic investors globally on proxy voting and engagement
A new project will identify Christian investment funds and investigate the
creation of fund sectors for Catholic/Christian investors
Left: Key speakers and organisers, photo: Mazur/CBCEW. Right, Cardinal Turkson in conversation
The actions aim to tackle key problems facing Catholic/Christian investors, identified by Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, president of Vatican bank and conference organiser, including a lack of funds aligned with Catholic/Christian values, and the difficulty of identifying those that do exist on investment tracking websites.
This means there are very few options for the estimated $1.75 trillion of Catholic/ Christian finance globally, said Jean-Baptiste de Franssu. Click below to read more, including the post-conference press statement and our original story on the event.
And what a transformative year it has been, says FaithInvest programme manager Catherine Devitt (shown right). 'We have engaged nearly 100 participants from different regions around the globe,' she says, 'including Australia, the US, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, France, Rwanda, Kenya, Pakistan, and more.'
Most important of all, the feedback has been really positive, with participants reporting feeling empowered and confident about aligning their investments with their faith values. Read more below – and look out for new course dates coming in 2025.
A wonderful FCI Interest Group forum on Islam and FCI
At our final Quarterly Forum of 2024, we were delighted to have two distinguished speakers discuss the groundbreaking publication, Al-Mizan: A Covenant for the Earth, and Islamic finance – Dr Iyad Abumoghli, Director of the UN Environmental Programme's Faith for Earth Coalition and Omar Shaikh, Director of Global Ethical Finance Initiative and a member of Islamic Finance Council, UK.
We learned about Al-Mizan's framework for aligning investments with ethical and sustainable practices and how its guiding principles can be implemented in practical investment strategies that align with faith and sustainability goals. It was a fascinating, illuminating and engaging conversation!
The next FCI Interest Group forum on will be on March 6. Subject to be confirmed in our next newsletter.
Dr Iyad Abumoghli
Omar Shaikh
FCI research posts
Every week, the FaithInvest team posts on issues around values-driven and faith-consistent investing on our FCI Research Posts page. In case you missed them, here is a selection from this quarter.
If you'd like to have our research posts sent directly to your inbox every week, just let us know at info@faithinvest.org and we'll add you to the FaithInvest FCI Interest Group!
Help us develop tools & resources to support others
If you are able to, please consider supporting FaithInvest. By donating to FaithInvest, your gift helps us develop the free-to-access tools, programmes and resources needed to support faith groups across as wide a range of geographies and capacities as possible.
