Banks driven by profit-at-all-costs hurt people, economy, pope says

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When the world of banking and finance crushes people instead of helping them, it betrays its very purpose and promotes an “uncivilized economy,” Pope Francis said.

“Unfortunately, in the globalized world, finance is now faceless and has become distanced from people’s lives,” he told representatives of two Italian credit unions and an “ethical” bank dedicated to serving the community and to not investing in weapons manufacturing, fossil fuels, factory farming, gambling and other harmful activities.

“When the only criterion is profit, we see negative consequences for the actual economy,” he told the representatives during an audience at the Vatican Dec. 16. The existence of poverty in a community is a sign of “a social sickness.”

“Banking institutions have the great responsibility of encouraging a logic of inclusivity and supporting an economy of peace,” he said.

“When finance tramples on people, foments inequality and distances itself from the life of its territory, it betrays its purpose,” the pope said. “It becomes, I would say, an uncivilized economy: it lacks civility.”

“There are multinational corporations that relocate their activities to places where it is easier to exploit labor, for example, putting families and communities in difficulty and invalidating labor skills that were built up over decades,” he said.

Some financial institutions risk becoming exploitative when they favor those who already have assets and guaranteed income, and exclude those “who are in difficulty and would need to be supported with credit,” he said.

There is also a risk, he said, when an institution is no longer located in the area where it was established, raising “funds in one place and moving those resources to other areas with the sole purpose of increasing its interests,” making people “feel abandoned and exploited.”

However, he said, “your presence here today speaks of a difference in business and banking” since they were established “to respond to the different needs of people.”

“Indeed, without adequate financial systems capable of inclusion and sustainability, there would be no integral human development,” Pope Francis said, because banks and credit are instrumental in supporting investments and labor “with the necessary transparency.”

“Finance is a bit like the ‘circulatory system,’ so to speak, of the economy: if it gets clogged in some places and does not circulate” throughout the entire “body” of the community, he said, there are “devastating heart attacks and ischemia” for the entire economy.

Sound finance does not engage in extortionary practices, blatant speculation and investments that harm the environment and promote wars, he said.

“The upcoming Jubilee reminds us of the need to forgive debts,” he said. “It is the condition for generating hope and a future in the lives of many people, especially the poor.”

The pope encouraged the delegations to promote trust, social justice and a sense of social responsibility, and he asked them to bring hope to those “who turn to you seeking to pick themselves up from difficult times or to revive their businesses.”

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