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Putting Faith in Financial Transparency
The Joseph Centre began by listening to workers: cleaners arriving before dawn, security guards on twelve-hour shifts, hospitality staff serving meals to traders whose lunch cost more than their hourly wage. Those conversations taught us that the dignity of work cannot be separated from the systems within which work happens. A cleaner's pay is shaped not just by one employer's generosity, but by procurement contracts, ownership structures, and the legal architectures through which money moves across borders.
This page brings together our report, exhibition, and roundtable on financial transparency, and what the Christian tradition has to say about it.
Report: 'A Theology of Financial Transparency' by Paul Bickley
The lack of financial transparency is usually framed as a technical problem: a matter for regulators and compliance officers. But it is also a moral problem.
This report argues that financial transparency is a matter of justice with deep theological roots. Drawing on three biblical themes — the prohibition of false witness, scripture's moral seriousness about money, and the apocalyptic tradition of divine unveiling — and on Pope John Paul II's concept of "structures of sin" from Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, it makes the case that opacity in financial systems is institutionalised injustice, not merely individual wrongdoing.
Paul Bickley calls on churches and Christian organisations to advocate for public registers of beneficial ownership, and to examine their own financial practices.
Exhibition: Voices for Transparency
Launched alongside the report at a special event in May, Voices for Transparency brings together testimony from those affected by illicit financial flows gathered by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The exhibition is open until May 21st at St Katharine Cree, 86 Leadenhall Street, London EC3A 3BP. You can also view the exhibition online and hear stories of victims in their own words.
Roundtable: Putting Faith in Transparency
What does Christian faith have to say about transparency in finance? Join us on Wednesday 20th May along with Theos for a Chatham House rule roundtable chaired by Sheriff and Alderman Robert Hughes-Penny (Investment Director at Rathbones, Chair of CityUK's Business Council), bringing together thought leaders from faith and finance backgrounds.
Exhibition Launch Event: May 2026
Photos by Katia Pirnak for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism