Archbishops attack financial 'bank robbers' and profiteers

by Paul Conneally | September 25, 2008 at 10:01 am

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The Anglican's most senior clerics have angered bankers and other financial institution workers by labelling them 'bank robbers' and 'asset strippers'.

Some think that they've gone too far and are talking Marxist rather than Christian philosophy but others feel that they are doing what their conscience forces them to do and speaking out where they see moral injustice.

Gordon Brown has called for more regulation of the financial industry although using less controversial language.

The Archbishop of York John Sentamu in a typical act of bravado didn't make his comments in an article or radio interview but straight at his targets in a speech to the Worshipful Company of International Bankers.

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The Church of England's two most senior clerics have launched a scathing attack on the financial industry, calling the bankers and speculators behind the credit crisis "bank robbers" and "asset strippers".

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, demanded tighter regulation of the industry and said it was out of touch with reality.

Williams added that Karl Marx had been right in his assessment of the nature of capitalism.

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said the market took its rules of trade "from Alice in Wonderland".

In an article published in the Spectator magazine, Williams wrote: "It is no use pretending that the financial world can maintain indefinitely the degree of exemption from scrutiny and regulation that it has got used to.

In a speech to last night's annual dinner of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers, Sentamu criticised the practice of short-selling, temporarily banned by the Financial Services Authority following the takeover of HBOS by Lloyds TSB.

"To a bystander like me, those who made £190m deliberately underselling the shares of HBOS in spite of a very strong capital base, and drove it into the arms of Lloyds TSB, are clearly bank robbers and asset strippers," he said.