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Oblates Press Banks to Restore Public Trust May 21st, 2014
JP Morgan Chase Tower, Houston, TX; by Gabor Eszes, used under Creative Commons license, Wikimedia Commons
Fr. Seamus Finn OMI represented the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) at the Annual General Meeting of JP Morgan Chase in Tampa on Tuesday.
Fr. Finn commended the bank on the steps taken thus far to produce a report commissioned by the Board of Directors in response to an ICCR shareholder proposal. The report is to describe “the steps that the Firm has taken to address a number of challenges it faced” since the near collapse of the global financial system in 2008.
Fr. Finn noted that “too many people are still living with the consequences of that crisis and the TRUST and confidence of the public has neither been repaired or restored. We believe the report that we have requested and our company has agreed to complete over the coming months can, when its recommendations are implemented, make a contribution to the restoration of the trust that is necessary for the reliable, safe, effective and ethical functioning of the financial system.”
Read the complete Statement at JP Morgan Chase AGM
IMF Must Consider Consequences for Poor and Social-Political Stability in Ukraine April 30th, 2014
IMF Reputation and Prospects for 2010 Reforms at Stake: Oblates join call for the IMF to consider the impact of their loan conditions on the people of Ukraine
Today, the IMF’s Executive Board of Directors is scheduled to review a $16.8 billion loan for Ukraine, which was endorsed by IMF staff last week. The IMF-Ukraine deal will impact the future of both Ukraine and the IMF.
The IMF deal comes with several conditions, including a move to a flexible exchange rate. Ukraine, with IMF assistance, made this change in February 2014. This has led to a 29 percent drop in the value of the Ukrainian hryvnia – making it even more difficult for Ukraine to pay its debt. Unfortunately, the IMF deal does not include any debt relief or “haircuts” – requiring creditors to accept a loss. Instead, the debt burden will carried by Ukraine’s citizens, almost a third of whom already live in poverty, according to an April 2014 UN Report.
“IMF-Ukraine negotiations have neglected the consequences for the citizens of Ukraine, and in this vein have disregarded how loan conditions will impact political and social stability in Ukraine” said Jo Marie Griesgraber, the Executive Director at New Rules for Global Finance, a DC-based NGO that pushes for responsibility in global financial institutions. “This is short-sighted and we strongly urge the IMF Executive Board to take this into consideration.”
Click here to read more »
Fr. Finn Speaking at Islamic Forum at Harvard University April 24th, 2014
Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI has been invited to present a paper on Shared Risk and Shared Responsibility at the Eleventh Harvard University Forum on Islamic Finance in April. The theme of the conference was Takaful and Alternative Cooperative Finance: Challenges and Opportunities. Takaful is an Islamic cooperative insurance system.
See here for conference details.
Dialogue on Life and Mining from Latin America December 10th, 2013
Religious and Lay representatives from Latin America, “moved by the critical situation of our peoples vis-à-vis the extractive industry”, met in Lima in November 2013. Concerned that mining is a source of “constant and serious conflict” in many countries of Latin and Central American countries, the attendees wanted to develop a vigorous and supportive set of local and international networks to help address the destructive impacts of mining. The Missionary Oblates were represented by Fr. Gilberto Pauwels OMI from Bolivia, and Fr. Seamus Finn OMI from the United States and through their participation in VIVAT, a coalition of religious congregations with ECOSOC status at the United Nations.
There are a number of outcomes from the gathering that included reaching out to a larger number of communities affected by mining, engaging with the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace at the Vatican and convening a broader consultation on the challenges of extractives in the second half of 2014.
Extractives, mining oil and gas exploration, play an important role across the world while also imposing great intrusion and damage in local communities and on the environment where they operate. The search for a way forward that addresses the most serious of those negative impacts has been taken up by a number of different initiatives in the academic, business, stakeholder and shareholder and NGO sectors. Hopefully gatherings like the meeting in Lima can make a constructive contribution to that process.
Read the statement: Dialogue on Life and Mining: Open letter from religious and lay stewards of the goods of creation in Latin America
Financial Transparency Coalition Meets in Africa on Problem of Illicit Financial Flows September 30th, 2013
The new Financial Transparency Coalition is meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on October 1-2. The theme for the conference, is “Towards Transparency: Making the Global Financial System Work for Development.” Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI, US JPIC Office Director, is officially representing ICCR (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility) at the conference.
Nearly a trillion dollars a year has been secreted out of developing countries, robbing them of revenue needed desperately for development. The coalition was formed to do something about this problem that is central to the development of poor countries. According to the Coalition, half of the illicit financial flows – a staggering $500 billion – is coming from Africa. Flowing from crime, corruption, and tax evasion, these illicit transfers represent a drain on developing economies that is equivalent to eight times the size of global foreign aid.
The US JPIC Office is involved in several inter-connected organizations in Washington, DC, working for greater financial justice and transparency. These include the Tax Justice Network USA, (where Fr. Finn serves on the Board), and the FACT coalition (Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Campaign). The international Financial Transparency Coalition was launched in May of 2013, in response to the growing awareness and activism around the problem of illicit financial flows.
