CONTACT: John C. Harrington FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Brianna Harrington 707-252-6166
Shareholders Challenge Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) On Banks’ Role in Supporting Stakeholders in COVID-19 Pandemic
April 20 – Napa, CA -- Harrington Investments, Inc., (HII), a Napa, California-based socially responsible investment firm, will present proposals at Citigroup’s Annual Shareholder Meeting on April 21, and at Bank of America’s meeting on April 22, calling for the banks to implement their commitments to support stakeholders announced in the Statement of the Purpose of the Corporation on August 29, 2019.
“The banks’ statement and commitment made last August was disingenuous because like most corporate public relations announcements, it is not based upon any policy adopted by our companies’ fiduciaries disclosed in our banks’ governance documents,” said John Harrington, President / CEO of HII. “So, what does the Statement mean in relation of our nation’s most serious existential crisis in our nation’s history?”
The August 2019 Statement by 181 CEOs of the Business Roundtable (BRT), leaders of the largest corporations in America, generally pledged to support all stakeholders, not just shareholders, by among other things, supporting job creation, a sustainable economy, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all.
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Harrington, demanded that Citigroup and Bank of America specifically:
• Commit to a livable wage and full healthcare for all bank employees working and furloughed. • Halt “check ordering” and overdraft fees for all unemployed customers and protection of customer credit. • Halt executive bonuses, corporate stock buybacks, and dividends. • Halt the utilization of offshore tax havens and pay a fair share of taxes to support the public sector’s fight against COVID-19. • Reduce or eliminate lobbying and political campaign financing and focus on funding food, medicine, and human services to unemployed Americans.
Harrington pointed out that in the last Great Recession, in which C and BAC were bailed out by the federal government, Citigroup paid over $25 billion in penalties for an array of violations, while Bank of America paid over $157 billion in government fines and penalties.
Harrington also questioned the banks’ statement espousing “protecting the environment by embracing sustainable practices,” in that Citigroup from 2016-2019 funded fossil fuels with $187 billion in loans, while Bank of America funded fossil fuel companies with $157 billion in loans in the same time period.
Harrington concluded by calling on both Citigroup and Bank of America to live up to their past public relations announcement with specific financial support of all stakeholders, saying that C and BAC boards of directors as fiduciaries, will be judged on what action they take during the COVID-19 pandemic and through the inevitable recession, and not on a vague statement by the corporate CEOs last year.
HII will also be presenting a similar resolution to Goldman Sachs (GS) on April 30, 2020.
On March 26, 2020, HII joined 193 of its colleagues (institutional investors) calling for the business community to provide paid leave to all furloughed employees, prioritize health and safety, maintain employment if possible, maintain supplier and customer relationships and ethical financial management and responsibility. As of April 14, 2020, 286 long-term institutional investors had signed on representing over $8.2 trillion in USD assets under management (https://www.iccr.org/investor- statement-coronavirus-response).
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For more information on Harrington Resolutions on the Statement of the Purpose of the Corporation go to the SEC EDGAR website:
Citigroup: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/831001/000121465920003392/j414202px14a6g.htm
Bank of America: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/70858/000121465920003439/hb416201px14a6g.htm
Goldman: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/886982/000121465920003441/sg416202px14a6g.htm
HII is a 38-year old family-owned corporation managing assets for individuals and institutions implementing an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment criteria, including engaging with corporations as a corporate shareholder to implement the investment firm’s ESG criteria. (www.harringtoninvestments.com)
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