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Chilean Bishop at Enel’s Annual General Meeting to Argue Against Big Dams in Patagonia April 28th, 2010
“No to new big dams in Patagonia; Water should be public again”
The Bishop of Aysén Luis Infanti De La Mora
Luis Infanti De La Mora, Bishop of Aysén region (Chile), will attend Enel’s Annual General Meeting today to say “no” to a project for the construction of five big dams on the rivers Baker and Pascua, and to get Chilean water back in public hands. The Bishop will be delegated to attend the meeting by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, by initiative of Fondazione Culturale Responsabilità Etica. The Oblates are shareholders in Etica.
“We wanted to involve the international network of religious investors”, explains Ugo Biggeri, the Foundation’s Chairman. “The Oblates are part of Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), a coalition of more than 275 religious orders, based in New York, that submit over 200 shareholders resolutions each year to the AGM’s of US most important companies and they are founding members of the International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG).”
Enel has inherited the big dams projects in Patagonia by Spanish utility Endesa, acquired by Enel in 2009. It’s a project with devastating impacts on a real natural paradise that poses serious risks on the security of dams, since Aysén is a seismic region.
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Bank of America is 2nd Major U.S. Financial Institution to Face Derivatives Proxy Vote By Shareholders April 26th, 2010
The verdict at BofA’s Wednesday Annual Meeting comes on the heels of a huge 30 percent support at Citigroup on the same Resolution. Of the four derivatives disclosure resolutions being filed, that with BofA may be the most telling, considering how the mishandling of Credit Default Swaps (a type of derivative) tripped up BofA’s Merrill Lynch.
With a much higher-than-expected 30 percent of Citigroup shares voted on April 20th in favor of more disclosure of derivatives practices, the focus now shifts to Bank of America (BofA), where shareholders will vote Wednesday (April 28th) on the same resolution sponsored by faith-based institutional investors belonging to the 300-member Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). The BofA vote will take place as Congress debates the fate of financial regulatory reform, including increased derivatives disclosure.
The resolution gives shareholders an opportunity, as they did at Citigroup, to express their concerns about the lack of transparency in the derivatives market that contributed significantly to the financial crisis. The higher-than-expected vote from Citigroup shareholders resulted even though the United States government, which controls 27 percent of Citigroup as a result of the bank bailouts, failed to fully support the resolution.
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ICCR Resolution at Citigroup Garners 30% of Shareholder Vote! April 20th, 2010
A Resolution put forward by faith-based shareholders with Citigroup on the complex financial instruments known as derivatives garnered a significant 30% of the shareholder vote at the banks’ AGM today. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate joined the Maryknoll Sisters, the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, N.J. and other members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility in filing the Resolution.
Sr. Barbara Aires, coordinator of Corporate Responsibility for the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, NJ, said: “We consider this double-digit vote in favor of the resolution to be a moral victory that sends a strong message to Wall Street that the ‘old ways’ on derivatives and all of the attendant market-crashing risk they involve is no longer acceptable.”
ICCR Board Member Rev. Seamus Finn, director, Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that ICCR members took this action because they are concerned “about those who are on the margins of the financial system, those in developing markets and the emerging market world.”
According to the resolution, “The recent financial crisis has resulted in the destruction of trillions of dollars of wealth and untold suffering and hardship across the world. …Very high degrees of leverage in derivatives transactions contributed to the timing and severity of the financial crisis.”
The US government holds 27% of outstanding shares in Citigroup as a result of last year’s bank bailout, and shareholders were disappointed that the US failed to vote all of its shares in favor of the derivatives resolution.
Fr. Finn excoriated the Treasury Department’s decision, saying “If taxpayers are going to own major shares of banks in exchange for bailouts then they should be just as active as other shareholders in providing guidance to management. The U.S. government controls over a quarter of outstanding Citigroup shares. It had an extraordinary opportunity here to vote all of its shares in telling Wall Street that more derivatives disclosure is vital.”
The Resolution called for the bank to disclose by Dec. 1 its policies on securing collateral for the derivatives they use in order to mitigate risk, and for using customer funds for other speculative activities. Derivatives are complex financial instruments that played a large role in the 2008 financial crisis.
Additional votes on shareholder resolutions on derivatives put forward by ICCR members will take place on April 28 at Bank of America, May 7 at Goldman Sachs, and May 18 at J.P. Morgan.
Learn more on the ICCR website …
Upcoming JPIC Events – Spring of 2010 February 25th, 2010
April 14-15, 2010: Missionary Oblates US Province JPIC committee meeting in Washington D.C. (More information in the Members section of the website)
April 15 -17, 2010: VIVAT INTERNATIONAL conference for religious Congregations working at the UN; location: Washington, D.C
June 21-25, 2010: Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) Annual Meeting in Detroit, Michigan.
US Airways Combats Child Sex Tourism March 4th, 2009
ICCR members thanked US Airways for its effort to inform passengers of the evil of child sex tourism in an advertisement in a recent issue of US Airways Magazine. At the recent III World Congress Against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents held in Rio de Janeiro, Nov. 25-28, 2008, Queen Silvia of Sweden stated that “Business executives have to play an active role; the society will not support companies that are indifferent to social problems.” The queen urged “transport, internet, travel and tourism sectors to deepen their commitment within their productive chains to fight child and adolescent sexual tourism world-wide.”
The Oblates are actively engaged in work to combat human trafficking through ICCR, and were a signatory to the letter.
