Christian finance
Christian finance is a kind of ethical finance following Christian ethics. The notion of "Christian finance" or "Catholic finance" refers to banking and financial activities that are not widely used. 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 were practiced, despite the prohibition of usury and the Catholic Church's distrust against exchange activities. Christian finance is characterized by the existence of three dimensions: personal, operational, and dogmatic.
General description
Actors
In the modern era, Catholic clerical finance continues to be conducted through the Vatican Bank, and many Catholic lay financial players also exist, both in Germany or the United States of America. Other Christian community 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 aims 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 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.