A High Court judge has blocked an attempt to launch a legal challenge over the government's use of taxpayers' money in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) investments that harm the environment and undermine human rights.

Fundamental reforms are urgently needed at the British government-owned investment company, CDC Group plc, which is supposed to reduce global poverty, UK-based international development agency Christian Aid says today.

A church-backed microfinance institution has increased its field investments by one third, reaching out to poor people often excluded by the commercial banking sector in spite of the global economic downturn.

The main British party conferences were about to sidestep the economy, but the latest bank crunch has made the topic unavoidable, says Simon Barrow. But do politicians or the churches have anything meaningful to say?

Oikocredit, the leading private international microfinancier, which gives support to poor communities and social enterprise, has announced a significant growth in activity and impact in its preliminary results for 2007.

Churches used financial leverage to force British Airways to change its uniform policy, according to a new website aimed at making the investment activities of churches in the UK more transparent. The Church Investors Group has combined assets of £12 billion.

A coalition of African and US Methodist church leaders are asking how African people and nations are being affected by Chinese long- and short-term investments in the region, often in exchange for mineral and mining rights.