Christian finance is a kind of ethical finance following Christian ethics. Christian finance is characterized by the existence of three dimensions: personal, operational, and dogmatic.
General description
Actors
Although not widely used, the notion of "Christian finance" refers to banking and financial activities which came into existence several centuries ago. Whether the activities of the Knights Templar, Mounts of Piety or the Apostolic Chamber attached directly to the Vatican, a number of operations of a banking nature or a financial nature is proved, despite the prohibition of usury and the Church distrust against exchange activities. In modern times, if the Catholic clerical finance continues to be on center stage through the Vatican Bank, many Catholic lay financial players also exist, both in Germany or the United States of America. Many other reformed Christian actors exist. In France, if the General Union presented ostensibly as a Catholic credit institution, today, social finance seems to have completely replaced Christian finance. 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.
Financial products
If certain financial transactions were explicitly condemned because they circumvented the prohibition of usury, 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 and from the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. 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, was published a note "Reform of the international financial system with a view toward a general public Authority". In his book "Catholic Finance", Dr. Antoine Cuny de la Verryère presents seven principles for a Catholic finance. 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.
Worldwide development
Europe
The Christian Finance Observatory, a non-profit international organization, gathering professionals of Christian ethical finance, announced in 2015 the publication of a "Fundamental Charter of Christian Ethical Finance". First codification of the genre, the Charter considers the various schools of Christian thoughts on financial matters and is available in many languages. Beyond general principles, the Charter set out a practical codification of financial practices, and makes sorting between practices considered as virtuous and those considered as non-virtuous. The drafting committee brought together participants from several countries.
S&P Dow Jones Indices created in August 2015 a new index that excludes companies apparently involved in activities that are deemed inconsistent with Catholic values. The OFCCFO's EXCELSIS Rating Committee considered that the product "S&P 500 Catholic Values Index" is eligible to the Quality Label EXCELSIS, rating should be "B-".
Eastern Orthodox finance
According to Russian press, a group of businessmen have started working December 2014 to the creation of an Orthodox bank and investment fund. Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has welcomed the project because it would rectify usurious mechanisms.
