This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

Full Committee Hearing SEC Proxy Access Proposals: Implications for Investors Thursday, September 27, 2007, 10:00 a.m., 2128 Rayburn House Office Building

From: American Banker Newspaper Wednesday, September 19, 2007 By Katie Kuehner-Hebert Banks that target minority groups, particularly Hispanics and Asian-Americans, are reporting asset growth well above the industry average, largely because of an influx of immigrants. However, on average these banks are less profitable and less efficient than mainstream ones, according to a report published last week by Creative Investment Research Inc. , a Washington consulting firm that focuses on minority banking. Assets at minority-owned banks are on pace to increase by an average of 17.43% this year, compared with the overall industry average of 6.38%, according to the report, which cited data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other sources. William Michael Cunningham , the consulting firm's president and chief executive, said the trend reflects both the increased number of start-ups targeting Hispanics — about a dozen have opened since the end of 2005 — and the continued ...

As we noted on August 10th, turmoil at the SEC means that paths to an optimized shareholder access and proxy policy, while then still present, are fewer in number. We continue to believe the SEC will limit shareholder rights. A 9/12/07 article in the Washington Post supports this belief. Thus, we are now almost certain that the restrictive shareholder access proposal we discussed on July 20th will be adopted. According to Portfolio.com, "The Social Investment Forum, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and Ceres, a coalition of investors, environmental groups and others, unveiled a new web site to attract 500 institutions and financial professionals to sign a joint statement against proposed S.E.C. changes." For a number of reasons, these efforts will probably be ineffective.

Social Investors Launch Campaign to Halt Proposed Changes to Proxy Access Rules According to Portfolio.com , "Socially concerned investors groups say they won't stand by and see Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox crimp their right to demand company accountability on important issues like the business risks of climate change. The Social Investment Forum, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and Ceres, a coalition of investors, environmental groups and others, unveiled a new web site to attract 500 institutions and financial professionals to sign a joint statement against proposed S.E.C. changes." As we noted earlier, "Those most directly impacted by the policy change are large in number but divided and unorganized. These include shareholder groups like the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, labor-related funds, fai...

SEC News and Enforcement Actions On August 9, 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission "filed a civil injunctive action against former senior officials of Nicor, Inc., a major Chicago-area natural gas distributor, alleging financial fraud lasting from 1999 to 2002. The SEC's complaint alleges that former Chairman, CEO and President Thomas Fisher, former CFO and Executive Vice-President Kathleen Halloran, and former Treasurer and Vice-President George Behrens engaged in or approved improper transactions, and misrepresented Nicor's gas inventory in order to meet earnings targets and increase the company's revenues under a performance-based utility rate plan." On August 13, 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced " the distribution of approximately $55.6 million in Fair Funds to more than 200,000 investors who were harmed by fraudulent market timing in certain Banc One mutual funds (One Group Funds). The Fair Fund resulted from a settled enfor...

In an August 3rd article titled "Do Gooders Do Well" on the Motley Fool website, Selena Maranjian noted our concerns about the GS Sustain Index and methodology, Goldman Sach's list of “companies from established industries, which have been selected by incorporating our proprietary Environmental, Social and Governance ( ESG ) framework into long-run industry drivers and returns-based analysis and valuation in order to pinpoint structural improvement and sustainable competitive positioning.” The article went on to say that " Of course, not every socially responsible investing advocate is anti-Goldman -- the Calvert Large Cap Growth Fund ( CLCIX ) recently had nearly 2% of its value invested in the company." (The stock is down 12.9% from 12/29/06 to 8/20/07. The S&P 500 is up 1.92% over the same period.) For the record, we are not anti-Goldman. We correctly listed factual data concerning ethical and diversity lapses at the firm, and tied these to their ...

According to the Winston-Salem Journal , "M and F Bancorp Inc. said yesterday (August 10, 2007) that it has agreed to buy Mutual Community Savings Bank Inc. and merge it with M and F’s bank subsidiary, Mechanics and Farmers Bank. The banks, both based in Durham, are two of the nation’s oldest black-owned financial institutions." We believe the merger is a positive development, and will insure that black banks remain a factor in North Carolina. We also note that this is the third transaction in the Black banking sector over the last 60 days.