Pope appoints senior bankers to Vatican investment committee

Pope Francis has appointed four high-profile investment bankers to a new investment committee set up to ensure the ethical nature of the church’s investments, the Vatican announced on Tuesday.

The committee was set up under a new constitution, called the Praedicate Evangelium (Proclaim the Gospel), that went into force on Sunday for church agencies. Under the Praedicate Evangelium, the committee will be made up of members appointed for five-year terms.

They are to ensure the ethical nature of the Vatican’s equity investments, “in accordance with the church’s social doctrine” while also observing criteria of profitability, suitability, and moderate risk.

The four members of the Committee are: Jean Pierre Casey of RegHedge, a British investor; Giovanni Christian Michael Gay of Germany’s Union Investment Privatfonds; David Harris of Norway’s Skagen Funds; and John J Zona, investment officer of Boston College in the US.

Francis has recently reformed the appointments process for church authorities, making it possible for women to sit in senior posts long reserved to men.

Following revelations of a huge loss on luxury London property between 2014 and 2018, the pope has moved to reorganize Vatican investment policy.