Christian finance

Christian finance belongs to the category of religious ethical finance, like Islamic finance. Christian finance is characterized by the existence of three dimensions: personal dimension (actors), operational dimension (operations), dogmatic dimension (principles).

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 (12th century), Mounts of Piety (appeared in 1462) or the Apostolic Chamber attached directly to the Vatican, a number of operations of a banking nature (money loan, guarantee, etc..) or a financial nature (issuance of securities, investments) is proved, despite the prohibition of usury and the Church distrust against exchange activities (opposed to production activities).

In modern times, if the Catholic clerical finance continues to be on center stage through the Vatican Bank (IOR), many Catholic lay financial players also exist, both in Germany (e.g. Pax Bank, Liga Bank, Darlehenskasse DKM) or the United States of America (e.g. Catholic Family Federal Credit Union, Holy Rosary Credit Union). Many other reformed Christian actors exist (e.g. Christian Community Credit Union, Kingdom Bank).

In France, if the General Union presented ostensibly as a Catholic credit institution, today, social finance (non-religious ethical finance) seems to have completely replaced Christian finance (e.g. Credit coopératif, Caisses de crédit municipal). 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 ("Catho-compatible players").

If certain financial transactions were explicitly condemned because they circumvented the prohibition of usury (e.g. Mohatra contract), 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.

As Islamic finance, Catholic finance claims to supervise banking operations and financial activities with moral principles directly from the interpretation of Christian religious texts (Bible) and from the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church (Treaty of virtues and vices, Catholic social teaching). 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".

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