ARCHBISHOP of Canterbury Justin Welby says he was irritated and embarrassed to discover the Church of England had invested in a high-interest loan company he had earlier promised to destroy.
The spiritual leader of the world's 85 million Anglicans had vowed to "compete out of existence" Britain's best-known payday lending company, Wonga, by supporting other forms of community-led lending.
But Welby, who took office in February, said he had now been made aware that the Church had indirectly invested STG75,000 ($A125,722) in Wonga, out of total investments of STG5.2 billion.
In an interview with BBC radio on Friday, the archbishop admitted he was "irritated for a few minutes" after hearing the news, first revealed by the Financial Times.
"It shouldn't happen, it's very embarrassing. But these things do happen. We have to find out why and make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.
The Church claims to have a strong ethical investment policy which explicitly bans companies involved in payday lending, so-called because they offer short-term loans to help customers out until they get paid.
But they have been criticised for their huge interest rates - in Wonga's case, typically the equivalent of 5853 per cent annually, although most loans are agreed for up to six weeks.
Lambeth Palace, the archbishop's office in London, said an independent inquiry would probe how "this serious inconsistency" in its investments occurred.
Welby said it was not clear whether the Church had broken its own rules, noting that it was allowed to invest in a company where less than 25 per cent of its business was in payday loans.
Wonga insists it is a responsible lender and that it has been "instrumental" in helping to raise industry standards.
As part of its ethical investment policy, the church last year sold its shares in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp following the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World.
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