Bountiful Financial Debuts Landmark Research on Catholic Indices at Global Conference on Faith-Consistent Investing Held at the Vatican
Study identifies significant opportunity to develop investment benchmarks aligned with Catholic Social Teaching
NEW YORK — Bountiful Financial was invited to present groundbreaking research during last month’s conference, “Faith-Consistent Investing for a Global Church,” held at the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican and convened by the Mensuram Bonam Initiative Foundation.
The conference, in which Bountiful Financial’s research was featured in a dedicated session on Catholic market indices, was held May 20–21 at the Casina Pio IV inside Vatican City. A white paper based on the research will be published on Bountiful Financial’s website in the coming weeks.
Titled “Establishing Fair Benchmarks for Faith-Consistent Investing: Surveying the Catholic Index Landscape,” the study represents the most comprehensive landscape analysis to date of Catholic investment indices available to investors worldwide.
The research was presented by Laura Segafredo, PhD, Senior Advisor to Bountiful Financial, former Managing Director at BlackRock, and adjunct professor at Columbia University, whose work focuses on the intersection of investing, ethics, and faith.
As demand for faith-aligned investing continues to grow globally, Catholic institutions are increasingly seeking investment frameworks that better align capital with mission.
Against that backdrop, Bountiful Financial conducted a comprehensive study of the Catholic index landscape. The research found that while more than three million indices are calculated globally each day, only 37 publicly identifiable Catholic indices exist worldwide, creating what the presentation described as “limited choice and uneven coverage.”
The study also found that no publicly available Catholic index methodology explicitly references Mensuram Bonam, the investment framework introduced by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences in 2022. The findings suggest a significant opportunity for Catholic institutions, asset managers, and index providers to develop the next generation of investment benchmarks and solutions informed by Catholic Social Teaching and guided by Mensuram Bonam.
The research further suggests that Catholic investing is entering a new phase in which institutions will increasingly seek more robust benchmarks, greater methodological transparency, and investment frameworks explicitly grounded in Catholic Social Teaching.
“The first step to managing is measuring,” said Reid Steadman, Co-Founder and CEO of Bountiful Financial. “If Catholic institutions want their investments to reflect Catholic Social Teaching, they need proper benchmarks designed with those principles in mind. Otherwise, they are evaluating faith-based portfolios against generic market standards that were never designed to reflect Catholic values.”
The presentation also highlighted notable differences between United States and European approaches to Catholic investing, including the number of screening criteria employed and the overall complexity of index methodologies.
The conference was convened in response to growing demand among Catholic institutions for greater clarity, practical implementation approaches, and greater harmony in standards across the faith-based investment ecosystem.
Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, former President of the Institute for the Works of Religion and a leading figure in the Mensuram Bonam Initiative Foundation, emphasized the significance of the dialogue emerging between the Church and the global financial community.
“The Church must enter an important new chapter in how it thinks about the moral responsibilities attached to managing its capital,” said de Franssu. “This conference and Bountiful’s research reflect the importance of indices as investment tools and a growing recognition that through them, Catholic investing can become more coherent, transparent, and aligned with the mission of Catholic institutions worldwide.”
Neal Howe, Head of Catholic Investment Solutions at Bountiful Financial, said the research could reshape how institutional investors think about moral accountability in finance.
“For decades, faith institutions have operated inside financial systems they did not design,” Howe said. “Today, Catholic investors have an opportunity to help shape investment frameworks and indices that better reflect human dignity, moral responsibility, and the common good.”
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About Bountiful Financial
Bountiful Financial is the world’s first index provider dedicated exclusively to faith-based investing across multiple religious traditions. Guided by its vision to bring religious freedom to investing the firm develops faith-consistent frameworks, datasets, indices, and investment solutions that help investors align capital with conscience. Bountiful combines institutional-grade governance, advisory councils, and advanced data science to deliver scalable solutions for asset managers, financial advisors, institutions, and faith-driven investors worldwide. For information, visit bountifulfinancial.com
Media Contact:
Jim Davis Jamison.davis@bountifulfinancial.com +1 203 832-2875
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