Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Bankers Failed to Repent for Collapse, Anglican Leader Says


From Bloomberg-

Bankers have failed to repent for their roles in the global financial collapse, said the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, leader of the Anglican Church.

“There hasn’t been a feeling of closure about what happened last year -- there hasn’t been what I as a Christian would call repentance,” Williams said in a British Broadcasting Corp. interview yesterday. “We haven’t heard people saying, ‘Actually, no, we got it wrong, and the whole fundamental principle on which we worked was unreal, was empty.’ ”

Williams is the most senior cleric in the church, which has 80 million members in 164 countries. He has called for stricter financial regulations and caps on bonuses for bankers.

The bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. a year ago helped to trigger the biggest worldwide financial crisis since the 1930s. Banks worldwide have recorded more than $1.6 trillion of losses and writedowns since the start of 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Since then, economies in the U.S. and Europe have begun to improve, and banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. have reported rising profit.

Williams said the church “colluded” in the financial markets because it was “intimidated by expertise.”

Return Shrinks

The church oversaw assets worth more than 4.4 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) at the end of 2008, including stocks, bonds and real estate, according to its annual report. The Church Commissioners, which manage the endowment, made a return of 5.7 percent in 2008, the lowest in at least 10 years.

More here-

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aAdTyXjW7.mI

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