The Catholic Church has a new leader. On 8 May 2025, Robert Francis Prevost was elected pope at the conclave held in Rome. For his new office the American took the name Leo XIV. Probably not without reason: Pope Leo XIII had established the Vatican’s social doctrine at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century and acted as a diplomat on the international stage. So far the new pontiff has left the 1.4 billion Catholics in no doubt that he would like to follow a very similar path. Leo XIV devoted his first few appearances to the issue of social injustice as well as to international trouble spots. He even offered the Vatican as a possible location for peace negotiations in the war between Russia and Ukraine. There is no question that the change at the top of the Catholic Church has brought faith and religion further into the focus of global attention.
On the stock market, by contrast, the election and first statements by the new pope seem to have had little impact. Events here continue to be shaped by trading strategies, monetary policy and company reports. Many investors, though, are guided by more than just macro and microeconomic parameters when deciding where to invest their capital. “Interest in faith-based investment has surged recently,” Morgan Stanley found at the beginning of 2024. According to the US big bank, this is far from a new concept, with investments in companies that manufactured alcohol or tobacco or promoted gambling being viewed critically as far back as 100 or more years ago. In the late 1960s, Roman Catholics, alongside Protestants and other denominations, spoke out publicly against apartheid in South Africa. “Religious sisters are credited with taking further action,” reported Morgan Stanley. After pooling their retirement assets, they filed shareholder resolutions to confront corporations that had not adopted principles detailing that all employees should be treated equally, regardless of race.
Although the Catholic Church in western Europe is suffering a huge loss of members, worldwide the number of Christians is rising. The other faiths are likewise gaining ground. Figures from the Pew Research Center reveal that just under 7 billion people belonged to a religion in 2010, nearly one in three being Christian. According to a projection from 2015, the number of people belonging to a religion could climb to over 9.3 billion by 2050. While the proportion of Christians in the world's population should remain steady, the significance of Islam is likely to rise markedly. The Pew Research Center puts the proportion of Muslims in the global population in 2050 at almost 30%. That would represent growth of over 6 percentage points on 2010. In light of such an outlook, it is not surprising that banks are paying increasing heed to faiths and religions and adopting special strategies to attract capital from this pool of customers.
The big beasts here are competing with start-ups such as Bountiful Financial. Founded in 2023, the US investment company is committed to democratising faith-based investing. “Bountiful Financial is the first faith-driven financial solutions company dedicated to empowering direct indexing platforms, wealth advisers and asset managers to serve faith-based investors,” goes the credo of the Connecticut-based company. It has no lack of expertise. At its head is Reid Steadman. The co-founder and CEO of Bountiful Financial was head of Innovative, Sustainable & Religious Indices at S&P Dow Jones Indices, where he was responsible for launching stock market barometers underlying more than USDtn 1 in invested assets. The company is fully focused on exploiting the possibilities of artificial intelligence when creating and assembling its indices – and there are a number of AI experts in its top management. The overarching goal is to offer investment solutions that are developed with theological integrity, cultural sensitivity and community oversight. To that end the company is structured around faith bureaus led by someone who is from a particular faith community. In addition to a Protestant, these include a member of the Roman Catholic Church as well as an adherent of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Three of Bountiful’s indices are already live, with another five in the development stage. It remains to be seen whether and to what extent the new pope will influence the work and products of this service provider.
Source: Pew Research Center, The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050; as at: April 2015
