Vatican Bank announces two new indexes aligned with Catholic teaching
- Susie Weldon
- 40 minutes ago
- 2 min read
In 2024, participants at the Mensuram Bonam conference in London (which we attended) complained about the difficulty of finding investment funds aligned with Christian or Catholic teachings.
Addressing this gap to make it easier for Christian investors to invest according to their values was one of the priority follow-up actions announced by the conference organisers – which included Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, President of Vatican Bank (official name: Institute for the Works of Religion or IOR).
Now Vatican Bank has announced the launch of two new equity benchmarks developed in partnership with Morningstar Indexes for both the European and US markets – the Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles index and the Morningstar IOR Eurozone Catholic Principles index.
Each index includes 50 medium- and large-cap companies chosen in accordance with the IOR’s Investment Policy, which is guided by the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, according to a press release issued by Vatican Bank.
The statement said the indexes are 'built following market best practices and in accordance with Catholic ethical criteria, and are designed to serve as a reference for Catholic investments worldwide'.
As well as excluding companies involved in activities inconsistent with Catholic teachings, they are also designed to 'incorporate future developments in the Institute's approach to ethical Catholic investing'.
This is a significant step forward in developing a new FCI ecosystem for Christian investors (an aspiration arising from the Mensuram Bonam conference) because it helps to address the lack of dedicated investment services for Catholic/Christian groups. This, said conference organisers, was a key impediment to growing FCI for the estimated $1.75 trillion of Christian capital in the US and Europe alone.
The new indexes also address what investors are increasingly seeking – 'benchmarks that reflect specific values-based or policy-driven criteria' – according to Robert Edwards, managing director for EMEA at Morningstar Indexes, a leading provider of independent investment insights.
It's encouraging to see such practical actions arising from the 2024 Mensuram Bonam summit, and we look forward to many more developments to enable faith-based investors to find investment opportunities aligned with their values. As we said at the time, the Mensuram Bonam summit had the potential to accelerate faith-consistent investing (FCI), not just in the Catholic Church but across the wider Christian world.
Clock below to read the Vatican Bank press release.
What next?
FaithInvest is linking up with Jean-Baptiste de Franssu – this time in his role as President of the Collège des Bernardins in Paris – for a major faith-consistent investing summit in April.
Faith in the Common Good brings together representatives of 30 influential institutional faith asset owners and faith networks from diverse traditions around the world. These include both religious leaders and their top-level faith investment professionals.
The aim is to discuss a potential collaborative multi-faith framework that would enable faiths to come together on issues of shared concern to use their investment power to achieve greater impact in the world.
