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Tell Congress: End Too-Big-To-Fail. Make Banking SAFE May 17th, 2012

The top five banks now control 52 percent of the financial industry’s assets; they had 17 percent in 1970. The six largest banks control assets equal to 62 percent of the nation’s gross national product. They may be not only too big to fail, but also too big to save.

The biggest of them, Dimon’s JPMorgan Chase, has $2.1 trillion in assets and more than 239,000 employees. The bank’s recent bad bet that now amounts to $3 trillion, is a clear indication of the need for serious reform.

Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Keith Ellison have introduced a measure to cut too-big-to-fail banks down to size. The SAFE (Safe, Accountable, Fair and Efficient) Banking Act would put in place an important element missing from the financial reform legislation of two years ago: a cap on how big banks can get. The bank lobby defeated all efforts to include a limit on their size.

Now the six largest banks – led by JPMorgan Chase – are collectively larger and more concentrated than they were before they blew up the economy, with the assets they control growing from $6.1 trillion before the collapse to more than $8.5 trillion today, according to Federal Reserve data.

Wall Street lobbyists have successfully delayed and diluted regulations that were supposed to flow from the Wall Street reform bill. And the big banks have ways to push their way around any barriers.

We need a fail-safe. If a bank can’t be too big, then it can’t be too big to fail.

Among the provisions of the Safe Banking Act are that no bank could hold more than 10 percent of all of the insured bank deposits in the country, nor could a bank holding company have non-deposit liabilities greater than 2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

By the standards in the SAFE Banking Act, four existing banks are currently above the size cap—JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo—and would have to shrink. This would be a major step in making banking sober—and boring, as it should be—once again.

Click here to tell Congress: Break up the big banks! Pass Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Keith Ellison’s SAFE Banking Act. 

Thanks to the Campaign for America’s Future for the information on this bill. 

Oblate Questions JP Morgan/Chase CEO Jaime Dimon May 16th, 2012

Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI representing the Oblates of Mary Immaculate at the JP Morgan/Chase AGM yesterday in Naples, Florida, made pointed comments about the latest heavy losses at the company. He questioned Dimon’s opposition to the Volcker Rule and the bank’s lobbying in opposition to other aspects of the financial regulations being developed at the SEC in response to the Dodd-Frank legislation.

He was quoted today by Maureen Dowd in her NY Times column:

The Rev. Seamus Finn, representing shareholders from the Catholic organization Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, did gently press the boss: “We’re wondering, Mr. Dimon, given what we’ve learned, do you still believe a company can self-regulate when trading on their own accounts?” He added: “Furthermore, should our company really be spending shareholder funds on, some $7 million last year alone, on lobbying efforts to thwart the Dodd-Frank legislation and the work of regulators to write the rules stemming from that legislation?”

 

The priest concluded that the shareholders, “weary of mistakes” and pledges to reform, wonder if Dimon is listening.

Fr. Finn was also quoted in The Guardian, on CNBC.com, The Telegraph, Crain’s New York Business, and the timesfreepress.com

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Churches May 14th, 2012

Thanks to the European Africa Faith & Justice Network for the following information: 

Bishops call for increased corporate transparency

Catholic bishops urge the European Union to legislate on extractive companies

While a group of EU member states, including Germany and the UK, are attempting to water down new EU transparency legislation, Catholic bishops from around the world urge the EU to push forward and require European Union-listed and large unlisted extractive companies to publicly disclose the payments they make to governments worldwide. In a joint statement, they say less stringent laws will fail to turn the curse of resource-rich developing countries into a blessing.

More information…

Click here to read more »

The Sisters of ICCR: Genuine Faith in Action May 7th, 2012

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a shareholder coalition celebrating over 40 years of social justice advocacy, released a statement on Friday acknowledging the vital role of Catholic women religious in transforming corporate policies and practices in order to create a more just and sustainable world.

Read the statement here… (Download PDF)

Impacts of Mining Exhibit at the UN hosted by VIVAT International May 1st, 2012

The Missionary Oblates and VIVAT International will host a multi-media exhibit on the impacts of mining operations on people and ecosystems around the world on May 8th at the United Nations. This unique exhibit will be up for viewing from 11:00-3:00 pm in the Chapel at the Church Center for the United Nations. May 8th is the second day of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the theme of which is the Doctrine of Discovery. The exhibit organizers have reached out through their global faith-based networks for stories and images from local communities affected by mining operations. If you are in New York on May 8th, please attend!

Goals of the exhibit include:

• Bearing witness to the suffering of the Earth and its peoples as a consequence of extractive industry abuses;
• Underscoring the necessity of industry standards in preventing mining abuses; and
• Revealing the courageous resistance of peoples all over the world to inadequate extractive industry standards.

At 2:30, there will be a special 15 minute commemoration of those who have been murdered around the world as a result due to their community resistance against the consequences of extractive industry on their communities.

Event details (Download PDF)

Banks Targeted in Divestment Campaign and by Faith-Based Shareholder Activism April 29th, 2012

Churches and faith-based shareholders alike have been taking action against big banks that have failed to respond to the plight of homeowners and others seriously affected by the financial crisis. The Missionary Oblates have been actively engaging the big banks and financial institutions in an effort to deal with some of the underlying problems that have caused so much pain to so many.

Recently, members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) facilitated the participation of VOICE (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement) in the Detroit AGM of GE Capital. VOICE is a faith-based community organization representing people who have lost their homes or whose houses are threatened by the on-going foreclosure crisis. GE Capital holds some of these mortgages and has been resistant to negotiation of the mortgage terms.

A recent article in Catholic News Service looks at the growing divestment campaign and some of the other activities of church groups vis a vis the big banks.

See our related post on the demonstrations outside the recent Well Fargo AGM in San Francisco.

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