Christian finance

General description

Actors

In modern times, Catholic clerical finance continues to be conducted through the Vatican Bank (IOR), and many Catholic lay financial players also exist, both in Germany (e.g. Pax-Bank, Liga Bank, Darlehenskasse DKM) or the United States of America (e.g. Catholic Family Federal Credit Union, Holy Rosary Credit Union). Other Christian community actors exist (e.g. Christian Community Credit Union, Kingdom Bank).

In France, if the General Union presented ostensibly as a Catholic credit institution, today, social finance (non-religious ethical finance) seems to have completely replaced Christian finance (e.g. Credit coopératif, Caisses de crédit municipal). However, with regard to ethical principles implemented and their historically Catholic origin, many actors of the solidarity finance can be attached to the category of Christian finance ("Catho-compatible players").

Financial products

If certain financial transactions were explicitly condemned because they circumvented the prohibition of usury (e.g. Mohatra contract), the operations of contemporary Catholic bank is characterized by their search for solidarity and the distribution of benefits in favor of the poor. For example, Liga Bank offers credit cards whose commissions are donated to charities supporting children.

Principles

As with Islamic finance, Catholic finance claims to supervise banking operations and financial activities with moral principles directly from the interpretation of Christian religious texts (Bible) and from the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church (Treaty of virtues and vices, Catholic social teaching). Also, since the subprime financial crisis, it was found that the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace took more often positions on financial matters. In October 2011, someone published a note "Reform of the international financial system with a view toward a general public Authority".

In his book "Catholic Finance" (in French: “Finance catholique”), Dr. Antoine Cuny de la Verryère presents seven principles for a Catholic finance (named "princificats"). Some of them are inspired from the principles of Islamic finance: prohibition of short-termism, prohibition of non-virtuous investment, obligation to give priority to virtuous savings, prohibition of unjust profits, obligation to share profits, obligation of transparency, and obligation of financial exemplary.