The Church of England was facing charges of hypocrisy yesterday over its leaders’ attack on short selling and debt trading after hedge funds pointed out it uses some of the same practices when investing its own assets.
Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Anglican Church, said it was right to ban short selling, while John Sentamu, archbishop of York, called traders who cashed in on falling prices “bank robbers and asset strippers”.
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Hedge funds pointed to the willingness of the Church commissioners to lend foreign stock from their £5.5bn ($10.2bn) of investments – an essential support for short selling – and derided the pair for not understanding shorting.
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As well as aiding shorting by lending stock, the Church commissioners had £13m invested in Man Group, the largest listed hedge fund manager, at the end of last year. The commissioners also sold a £135m mortgage portfolio last year, according to their annual report, in spite of Dr Williams’ criticism of trading debts exclusively for profit.
Through the Church of England pensions board, which manages another £847m, the Church invested this year in a fund from Auriel Capital, a London hedge fund, which aims to make money from currency trading – including short selling currencies.
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A senior aide to Dr Williams rejected the charge of hypocrisy, saying the Church “clearly invested across a range of instruments to ensure no undue risk is being taken”.
