CBIS participants have long supported active ownership initiatives that sought to address some of the causes of the crisis. This year demonstrated that it is not enough for investors to watch from the sidelines and expect to be rewarded. Since our founding, CBIS has believed that investors need to be engaged to ensure that our values have an impact on both the companies in which we invest and the overall economic system.
Our socially responsible investment (SRI) program has pressed companies to halt predatory lending, develop sustainable lending standards, and promote fairness and sustainability in global finance. Religious investors working through the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) have pressed global financial firms for better disclosure of off-balance sheet liabilities, better assessment of counterparty risks, greater transparency of their complex trading strategies, and more conservative capital adequacy ratios.
The price paid by communities, employees, shareholders and society at large for an abandonment of ethics by some became painfully clear and could be measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money put at risk and trillions in lost wealth as financial asset prices collapsed. The year offered a case study for the validity and value of our Catholic approach to fiduciary stewardship.
Yet as difficult as 2008 was, we remain confident in the eventual return of bullish spirits to the financial markets and a return of global economic strength. While the timing is not yet clear, the crisis will eventually give way to another bull market, as financial crises have throughout history. And CBIS continued, in 2008, to strengthen and expand our foundation to position the firm for such a recovery.
The year offered a case study for the validity and value of our Catholic approach to fiduciary stewardship.