Church of England pension fund linked to Wonga

[dutchman]

The Church of England has called for an investigation into its own pension fund after it was discovered to have links to Wonga - the payday lender the Archbishop of Canterbury has vowed to take on.



The fund, which claims to have a strong ethical investment policy that explicitly bans companies involved in payday lending, was found to have invested in Accel Partners, the US venture capital firm that led Wonga's 2009 fundraising.

Lambeth Palace have said that they were unaware of the links highlighted by a Financial Times investigation..

The news comes a day after The Most Rev Justin Welby said the Church of England wants to "compete" Wonga out of existence as part of its plans to expand credit unions as an alternative to payday lenders.

Despite a source claiming that the pension fund investment is only a few million pounds, the revelation threatens to undermine the Archbishop's outspoken pledges to take on the industry.

A Lambeth Palace statement said: "We are grateful to the Financial Times for pointing out this serious inconsistency of which we were unaware.

"We will be asking the Assets Committee of the Church Commissioners to investigate how this has occurred and to review the holding in this pooled investment vehicle."

The reported investment is only a small fraction of the £5billion of assets available to the church.

Lambeth Palace added: "We will also be requesting the Church Commissions to investigate whether there are any other inconsistencies as normally all investment policies are reviewed by the Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG)."

The Archbishop said he has personally told Wonga chief executive Errol Damelin: “We're not in the business of trying to legislate you out of existence, we're trying to compete you out of existence.”

[dutchman]

Archbishop of Canterbury 'embarrassed' over Church funds



The Archbishop of Canterbury said he was "embarrassed" and "irritated" that the Church of England invested indirectly in online lender Wonga.

It comes after the Most Reverend Justin Welby told Wonga the Church would try to force it out of business by helping credit unions compete against the firm.

But the Church later said it invested in funds that provided money for Wonga.

Archbishop Welby told the BBC he wanted the Church's investment rules to be reviewed following the row.

Lambeth Palace said an independent inquiry would be launched into how "this serious inconsistency" occurred.

The amount of Church money indirectly invested in Wonga was about £75,000 out of investments totalling £5.5bn, according to the archbishop.

"It shouldn't happen, it's very embarrassing, but these things do happen and we have to find out why and make sure it doesn't happen again," Archbishop Welby told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

[rebbonk]

Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

[dutchman]