“The rich rule over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender.” These words from Proverbs xxii, 7, will resonate with millions of mortgage borrowers this Easter. The verse is one of several quoted by the Association of Christian Financial Advisers (Acfa) in its Biblical Principles of Financial Planning. Acfa members - from all denominations - subscribe to these and sign a six-point “statement of faith”.

Several other British bodies link faith and finance. Kingdom Bank, which puts callers on hold to canned hymns, uses the slogan “your savings build churches”. Meanwhile, specialist and high street banks offer products that sidestep the Koran's ban on usury. In this month's Budget the Chancellor said that he would “promote the expansion of the UK market in Islamic finance”.

Money features heavily in the scriptures of both Christianity and Islam, so how do financial products and services targeted at believers differ from mainstream versions?

“What we try to apply is biblical principles - there are 2,000 relevant verses in scripture,” says Graham Cleveland, founder of Trinity Wealth Management, a Christian independent financial adviser (IFA) that charges about £3,500 plus VAT for a “holistic” financial plan. He says that these are guidelines, rather than hard-and-fast rules, adding: “Is the 10 per cent ‘tithe' people should give net or gross of tax? Is God bothered?”

He says that most clients come to Trinity for investment advice and inheritance tax planning. Tax minimisation, he explains, is perfectly legitimate. “Pay unto Caesar what is due. But if there is an allowance, use it.”

Mr Cleveland adds that the principles adhered to by Trinity were widely respected in Britain until the mid-20th century, when “materialism came in” and churchgoing declined. Among these is the practice of spending less than you earn.

He and his colleague, Jon Cobb, who specialises in investment, pray “every day” for inspiration on problems. Mr Cleveland says: “Someone wanted to know how much to put in a pension. I prayed and realised that he should put in 70 per cent of the amount considered and give the rest away. When I told the client, he said that he had the same answer. How many other IFAs work like that?”

Many of Trinity's clients choose ethical investments, but the company works across the whole market and does not “draw the ethical line”. In contrast, the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group rules out all church investment in armaments, as well as in companies whose principal business is in alcohol, gambling or pornography.

For Christian savings, Mr Cleveland recommends Kingdom Bank. Owned by the UK's largest Pentecostal denomination, its deposits finance mortgages for “preferably evangelical” churches. In addition, Christian charities, including World Vision and Tear Fund, receive 20 per cent of the profits. The bank's bestselling product for individuals is its base-rate tracker cash mini-Isa, paying 5.25 per cent for deposits of £2,500-plus.

Kingdom Bank does not offer a current account. A Christian bank that does - along with savings products, loans and mortgages - is the Salvation Army's Reliance Bank. Deposits are invested within strict ethical boundaries and the bank's profits fund evangelical and charitable work. Like Trinity and Kingdom Bank, Reliance emphasises its “excellent, personal” customer service.

The country's first Islamic bank, the Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB), shares this commitment. Unlike Christian banks, however, its products and services differ in fundamental form from those on offer elsewhere. This is because of Islam's prohibition on the payment of fixed interest, or riba. The bank's current accounts, for example, pay no interest, while savings accounts pay a share of the profits on the bank's investments.

The ban on riba rules out the conventional mortgage model. For this reason IBB has partnered Alburaq Home Finance to offer Sharia-compliant mortgages. The bank puts up the money for 90 per cent of the mortgage, a stake that the client buys back in instalments over the mortgage term. He or she also pays rent. Melanie Bien, of Savills Private Finance, the mortgage broker, says that these mortgages tend to be slightly more expensive than non-Islamic loans.

Islamic finance is about more than a ban on interest. Mohammad Shafique, of the Institute of Islamic Banking and Insurance, says that investments should not be in businesses that “harm society”. Companies in alcohol or gambling, for instance, are prohibited, and there is a debate over supermarkets that sell alcohol.

CASE STUDY

Lindsey Carter, of Plymouth, travelled all the way to St Albans to visit Trinity Wealth Management after seeing the Christian IFA featured on the BBC programme Songs of Praise.

“I had no idea that there even was such a thing,” says the 62-year-old, who works for Cafod, the Catholic aid agency. “I was delighted, because I have a deep suspicion of the whole financial industry.”

Mrs Carter, left, had sold an investment property and wanted advice on putting the proceeds into ethical funds. She was also keen to make her charity gifts tax-efficient and to prepare for a comfortable retirement.

“Trinity looks at the whole person,” she says. “I have used other IFAs before, but they could never understand my priorities. They had never heard of 'tithes', for instance. Their advice has been the best I have had and I would recommend Trinity to like-minded people.”

Mrs Carter gives away all the income from her savings and investments, supporting a range of Christian charities.