Ethical investment: Interview with Peter van den Brock

Mr Peter van den Brock worked for Pax-Bank for 50 years until his retirement in 2007, His last position was Head of the Department Asset Management. Under his aegis, most of the currently existing LIGA-Pax funds were established. Nowadays, Mr van den Brock remains at Pax-Bank’s side providing his advice.

Pax-Bank: Mr van den Brock, why does Pax-Bank strive so hard to invest customer’s funds and its own assets according to ethical criteria?

van den Brock (vdB): Being a bank for the Church, this requirement is a given for Pax-Bank, not only in terms of our own credibility but also to uphold and pursue the values of its customers and proprietors actively. As well as that, it's a natural response to the strong desire among many customers for ethical practises.

Pax-Bank: What exactly is Pax-Bank’s promise?

vdB: Pax-Bank’s claim consists in honestly endeavouring to invest customer’s deposits and own investments in so far as possible in line with Christian ideals. That makes the difference to other banks, and in a very positive way to my mind. However, we must let our clients know that, with all the professionalism possible, we can never achieve this a hundred percent of the time.    

Pax-Bank: Why not? What exactly are the difficulties of ethical productive investments and what has changed here according to your experience?

vdB: One thing is that our globalised world has become faster moving and more complex. It's becoming more and more difficult to trace the interests and activities of internationally acting enterprises down to the last detail, it's just as difficult as keeping this knowledge up-to-date. This was certainly different in the past. Therefore, Pax-Bank has been employing the services of external specialists for part of its funds for years now. However, this concept cannot be applied to all of our investment funds within a short time-frame.

Another fact of the matter is that there are quite some controversial discussions as regards evaluation of single branches or products in terms of what constitutes ethical or non-ethical investment. I know, for example, some religious orders that are active world-wide and that strictly reject acquisition of US government Treasury notes because of death penalty in the USA for example.  

In contrast, there are many people in Germany who consider nuclear energy as fundamentally unethical despite an accelerating climate change. Such conclusions are not equally shared by everyone and everywhere, not even within Church. For us, being bankers and non-theologians this is a balancing act which is not always so easy. Nevertheless we have to follow this path, in our client’s interest, in Pax-Bank’s interest and certainly beyond that.

Pax-Bank: For what would you wish for in the discussion about ethical investment?

vdB: One should regard achievements with favour and maintain a diversified view of things. Ethical and socially responsible investment is a process. This process can only be developed on the basis of a lively and open discussion. New insights and developments will lead to changes in assessment of what is ethically permissible, in the light of certain facts and circumstances. So I would suggest that discussion be held with the necessary degree of humility.