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Faith-based Investors Celebrate Victory in Wells Fargo Pay Day Lending Decision January 17th, 2014
Wells Fargo, a major US bank targeted by faith-based investors for their harmful pay day lending practices, announced today that they would discontinue their Direct Deposit Advance service. This is a huge victory on behalf of those who have fallen prey to this predatory lending.
In a Shareholder Resolution with Wells Fargo, which the Oblates co-filed in 2012 and 2013, and in dialogs with company officials, ICCR members raised serious concerns about these loans, their impact on people, and the risks to the bank by engaging in such practices.
ICCR issued a press release on the bank’s decision:
After a long-term engagement with Wells Fargo to promote more responsible lending products, today members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) wish to commend management for making the right decision in ending its Direct Deposit Advance program. The company issued a statementtoday announcing that it would discontinue the product effective February 1st.
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ICCR Shareholders Confront Banks Over Recent Scandals December 20th, 2013
The efforts of the Missionary Oblates and other ICCR faith-based shareholders to call the major banks to account in the wake of a flood of legal scandals and regulatory investigations, has won the attention of the media.
An article in the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch, highlights the shareholder proposals filed by religious shareholder groups with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM , Bank of America Corp. BAC and Wells Fargo & Co. WFC asking for a report on “business standards”. The proposal says, “We believe shareholders deserve a full report on what the bank has done to end these unethical activities, to rebuild credibility and provide new strong, effective checks and balances within the bank,” the shareholders write in the Wells Fargo proposal, with similar language for the other two banks. “While press releases describe specific settlements or new reforms, the overall picture has not been reported adequately to shareholders.”
Father Seamus Finn, a board member of ICCR, and a shareholder lead with several of the banks, called the requests “a win-win” for the banks and shareholders, giving them an opportunity to showcase how they’re addressing “the many issues of the day.”
Learn more. Read the WSJ article…
Remembering Nelson Mandela December 6th, 2013
We would like to share this tribute to Nelson Mandela from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
Friends,
Today the ICCR community mourns the loss of Nelson Mandela, champion for equality and human rights, peacemaker and icon of hope for reconciliation and justice. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and countrymen.
Forty-three years ago, witnessing the selfless struggle of Mandela and others who rejected the inequality and racism symbolized by the apartheid system, faith-based investors continents away were inspired to partner with the freedom movement by using their collective voice as shareholders to help bring economic pressure to bear against the South African government. It was in seeking the end of apartheid that ICCR first forged its beginning, and helped give birth to the shareholder advocacy movement as recalled in this podcast by one of ICCR’s founders, Paul Neuhauser.
Mandela’s quiet tenacity continues to give promise to the oppressed, enslaved, and exploited the world over and his legendary humility and commitment to genuine reconciliation are at the core of ICCR’s mission and always will be. With an estimated 21 million men, women and children worldwide still enslaved, we are united in our shared responsibility to continue to fight against injustice wherever and whenever we encounter it. This was Mandela’s lifelong message and his passing will not diminish its relevance in our world.
As Mandela said, “After climbing a great hill, one only finds many more to climb.” With his spirit to guide us, we will continue to bear witness, to testify, to advocate and raise our voices for justice…we will continue the climb in his name.
Godspeed!
Laura Berry
Executive Director
On behalf of the grateful members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
ICCR Shareholders Engage JP Morgan Chase at Annual Shareholder Meeting November 24th, 2013
L to R: Fr. Seamus Finn, OMI (Missionary Oblates); Sr Valerie Heinonen, OSU (Mercy Investments); Cathy Rowan (Maryknoll Sisters); Sr. Nora Nash (Sisters of St Francis of Philadelphia); Sr. Barbara Aires, SC (Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, NJ); Fr Joe La Mar, MM (Maryknoll); Mariela Vargova (Rockefeller Brothers); Sr Pat Daly, OP
Shareholders from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility engaged JP Morgan Chase at a meeting last Monday in New York on a broad range of issues from risk management to foreclosures and other business practices. On November 19, the bank finalized a $13 billion settlement agreement with the US Justice Department over “alleged bad behavior relating to mortgages and mortgage-backed bonds,” as Marketplace reports.
Brief background:
JP Morgan Chase bought up Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns after they went under in the financial crisis of 2007-08. All three institutions, along with other banks, had bundled hundreds of home loans into securities and marketed them as investments that could be traded like stocks. When millions of homeowners defaulted on their mortgages and the housing market collapsed, the value of the securities took a nose dive and the economy went into a tailspin. Responsibility for the meltdown is still being apportioned, while hundreds of thousands of families lost their homes. ICCR investors hope that some of those who suffered in the financial crisis will benefit from the settlement.
Part of the $4 billion for consumers would go toward helping some homeowners whose mortgages are handled by JPMorgan. Unusually for such settlements, another share would be used to reduce blight in neighborhoods peppered by rundown and abandoned homes.
Top US Banks Disappoint in Investor Study November 22nd, 2013
Five years after the crisis that rocked the financial world, seven leading U.S. banks scored a disappointing 60 or fewer out of 100 possible points in a benchmarking study released today by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), which represents 300 faith-based and socially responsible institutional investors with $100 billion in assets under management. The top banks were evaluated in terms of four key shareholder concerns: executive compensation, risk management, responsible lending and investing, and political contributions.
The financial institutions included in the ICCR report are: Goldman Sachs (60, which scored highest on responsible lending and investment and tied for highest on political contribution practices); Bank of New York (59.02, which scored highest on risk management and tied for highest on political contribution practices); JP Morgan Chase (56.5, which tied for highest on political contribution practices); Morgan Stanley (55.40); Bank of America (55.35); Citi (54.90, which tied for highest on political contribution practices): and Wells Fargo (50.73, which scored highest on executive compensation practices.).
You can find the full report on the ICCR website or download directly here.
Rev. Séamus Finn, director, Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation for the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and ICCR board vice chair, said: “Five years after the U.S. financial meltdown, some of the banks are beginning to address their risk management protocols, but have much more work to do when it comes to responsible lending and investment. Overall disclosures are also weak, particularly related to both executive compensation and political contributions. What we see in these findings is a somewhat timid group of banks clustered in the average-to-below-average range with no single institution distinguishing itself as a leader for shareholders in the post-financial crisis era.”
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