A new report offers advice to Christian investors on selecting and working with asset managers to ensure their assets are invested in a manner consistent with their faith. Published by Church Investors Group (CIG), which represents organisations with £26 billion (US$33 billion) in AUM, the guidance outlines the steps involved in selection, appointment and monitoring. It also provides a framework to help ensure that church investors’ values, beliefs, and policies are integrated in the management of their investments. “We have faith in sustainable investment; but we also want our asset managers to have more room for faith,” said Stephen Beer, CIG Chair of Trustees. “Our aim is to help members form long-term relationships with asset managers, built on mutual understanding.” CIG promotes ethical investment for the public benefit, encouraging the development of investment policies based on Christian ethical principles and drives responsible business practice through engagement with company management. The guide helps Christians to engage constructively with their investment managers, recognising that Church investors will want to avoid making investments contrary to their beliefs, while also seeking to support tangible and positive social and/or environmental outcomes. The Christian investment universe is estimated to represent around US$1.75 trillion across individual and institutional investors. “At the heart of this project is a framework to help Christian investors set clear expectations for the asset managers who enact their mandates,” said Dr Rory Sullivan, the report’s co-author and CEO of Chronos Sustainability. “This creates alignment right through the value chain in terms of the systems and processes they expect managers to have in place, the specific issues they expect managers to consider, and the outcomes and impacts they expect managers to achieve.”
