Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby vows to withdraw Church of England pension fund from Wonga Justin Welby has vowed to help grow Britain's 500 financial co-operatives Archbishop said today he was embarrassed by the news Has vowed to review investment policy so 'it doesn't happen again By Gerri Peev and Hugo Gye The Archbishop of Canterbury today admitted he was 'embarrassed' to discover that the Church of England had a stake in controversial payday lender Wonga. The Most Rev Justin Welby has declared war on companies charging inflated rates of interest and vowed to expand credit unions to act as an alternative, in a move backed by the Government. But yesterday it emerged that the CoE's pension fund invests in one of Wonga's key financial backers - and the Archbishop said today that the Church must 'ensure this doesn't happen again'. When asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme whether he was 'embarrassed' by the revelation, Mr Welby replied, 'Yes I am', adding: 'I was irritated for a few minutes, but these things happen.' He vowed that the Church would withdraw its investment from Wonga, saying: '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.' The Archbishop suggested that the CoE would revise rules allowing it to invest in companies which make up to a quarter of their revenues from lending at sky-high rates of interest. 'They shouldn't be invested in Wonga, we don't think it's a good thing,' he said. 'We have to review these levels and make sure that we are consistent between what we're saying and what we're doing. We think that the payday lenders charge vastly excessive amounts for the loans they make. This is something that really matters to me. However, Mr Welby also insisted that mistakes such as this one are inevitable in world of investing, due to the complicated nature of the financial world. 'We've got to live in the real world, and living in the real world means that life is complicated and you can't escape the complexity,' he said. Some have suggested that Church should not be involved with the financial markets at all - the credit unions they are supporting charge annual interest rates of up to 80 per cent, far more than High Street banks. But the Archbishop said the CoE should 'put our money where our mouth is', adding: 'We don't stand on the sidelines on some sort of great podium lecturing everyone else.' He continued: 'I don't think capitalism is necessarily amoral - it can sometimes be immoral, but it is not of itself immoral.' Although much of the debate has focussed on high-profile lenders such as Wonga, Mr Welby said that 'the worst people are not Wonga' and claimed his campaign was targeted more at loan sharks than professionally managed companies.