National Ethical Investment Week

Can we invest ethically?

CIF Belief piece on cooperation in the world of ethical investment:

Picture this: India. Delhi. 2005. A multinational company is looking for skilled employees for five vacancies. It outsources recruitment to a local firm that asks candidates a standard set of questions. One question is "What do your parents do for a living?" The answer reveals where the candidate sits in the caste hierarchy.

Fast forward a year to 2006: A HSBC shareholder attends his bank's AGM in London. He raises the problem of caste discrimination occurring across multinational corporations in India. The chairman agrees this is an issue that needs tackling. HSBC meets with the Dalit Solidarity Network to discuss strategies. Proactive policy follows.

What has the church got to do with any of this? Well, churches in the UK have combined assets of £12bn. That is a sum that wields some power in the investment world. The Methodist church's Central Finance Board (CFB) looks after £1.1bn of those assets. The Ministers Pension Fund accounts for just over a quarter with a further £140m managed for non Methodist bodies under the Epworth name. In June 2010, CFB published its ethical policy on caste discrimination. It stated that companies "should be able to report to shareholders the progress made in enhancing the employment opportunities of scheduled castes within the context of recruitment and in career development". That's just one example. There are many more.

For the whole thing see here