Church of England will try to block big banker bonuses through shareholdings

The Church of England, which holds some £8bn in investments, intends to use its shareholdings to block big banker bonuses.

It told its fund managers to vote down policies that would enable execs to get bonuses worth more than 11% of their salary.

The CofE says it wants to challenge “a culture of greed and entitlement”. Its new policy says “executive remuneration has become misaligned”, and that bonuses “appear to have come to be regarded as an entitlement”.

The policy lays out the CofE’s intention to encourage longer-term incentive schemes in AGMs and to start making shareholder decisions based on considerations such as ethical and environmental measures rather than just financial performance.

The Church seems to have become increasingly involved in debate surrounding banking in recent times.

Notable examples include Rowan Williams in 2011, when he was still Archbishop of Canterbury, making a stand against the culture of financial services, and last September’s CofE report that condemned the City, saying “‘the culture of [bankers’] working environment does little or nothing to encourage virtues such as truth-telling, loyalty and prioritising what is right over what may be expedient.’