( Financial Times ) -- Lambeth Palace has ordered an independent inquiry into investments made by the Church of England 's £5.2bn investment fund after the Financial Times revealed that it had indirectly invested in Wonga , the payday lender . The Archbishop of Canterbury said he was `` embarrassed '' and `` irritated '' that the Church Commissioners had indirectly invested in Wonga , the payday lending firm that he has vowed to `` compete out '' of business by encouraging credit unions to be set up in churches across the country . In an interview with the BBC 's Today programme on Friday morning , Justin Welby said that the amount of Church money indirectly invested in Wonga was about £75,000 out of investments totalling £5.2bn . The church , which claims to have a strong ethical investment policy that explicitly bans companies involved in payday lending , invests in Accel Partners , the US venture capital firm that led Wonga 's 2009 fundraising . He said : `` Now , it should n't happen , it 's very embarrassing , but these things do happen . We have to find out why and make sure it does n't happen again . '' `` We ca n't say that we tolerate bad things but we have to live in the real world . . . how do you actually live in the complexity of today . '' When asked if capitalism was amoral , he said : `` I do n't think capitalism is necessarily amoral , it can sometimes be immoral but it is not of itself immoral . '' Lambeth Palace said an independent inquiry would be launched into how `` this serious inconsistency '' occurred . Jonathan Bartley , co-director of Ekklesia , the religious think-tank , told the BBC that the church had acted within its own investment guidelines . `` I do n't think the Church of England needs an inquiry . . . if you look at its policies , they 're very clear . The Church of England can invest in payday loan companies , or those that invest in payday loan companies , provided it 's not more than 25 per cent of their business , '' he said . `` The 25 % figure is exactly the same for pornography , gambling . . . in armaments it 's 10 per cent . They 've gone down a route to maximise their profits ; they 're absolutely explicit that they want to make 5 per cent above the rate of inflation . '' Archbishop Welby has been a prominent critic of short-term lenders , and has previously supported the introduction of a cap on the amount an individual can borrow from these companies . In an interview with the magazine Total Politics published this week , he revealed he had met with Errol Damelin , founder and chief executive of Wonga , to inform him of the Church 's plans to go head-to-head with him on short-term loans . `` I said to him quite bluntly we 're not in the business of trying to legislate you out of existence , we 're trying to compete you out of existence , '' said the Archbishop . The Church 's plan revolves around opening its network of 15,000 church premises to existing credit unions and offering volunteers to help run them . The Church has played an increasingly active role in the debate over ethical banking in recent months , both as an investor and because Archbishop Welby was an outspoken member of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards . © The Financial Times Limited 2013 .
The amount of UK funds indirectly invested in Wonga was about £ 75,000 out of total totalling £ 5.2bn . The Archbishop of Canterbury said he was ` ` embarrassed '' and ` ` irritated '' by the breach . Lambeth Palace said an independent inquiry would be launched into how ` ` this serious breach '' occurred .