This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

Astronomers Baffled. Does this indicate an unusual occurrence on Earth?

On December 16, 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission "approved rules to enhance the information provided to shareholders so they are better able to evaluate the leadership of public companies. Additional Materials Final Rule: Proxy Disclosure Enhancements Beginning in the upcoming annual reporting and proxy season, the new rules will improve corporate disclosure regarding risk, compensation and corporate governance matters when voting decisions are made. In particular, the new rules require disclosures in proxy and information statements about: The relationship of a company's compensation policies and practices to risk management. The background and qualifications of directors and nominees. Legal actions involving a company's executive officers, directors and nominees. The consideration of diversity in the process by which candidates for director are considered for nomination. Board leadership structure and the board's role in risk oversight. Stock and option a...

"President Obama met with the nation's top bankers yesterday at the White House. The President urged the CEO's to bolster lending to consumers and small businesses to help jumpstart the economy. Largely absent from the meeting were community-based minority banks, which have struggled to stay afloat in recent years. Bill Cunningham, CEO of Creative Investment Research, discusses the historic role of minority lending and..its role in the current economic landscape." Online at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121458912&ft=1&f=46

According to the FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households , released on December 2, 2009, 21.7% of Black households, 19.3% of Hispanic households and 15.6% of Native American households are underbanked.."at least 25.6 percent of U.S. households, close to 30 million households with about 60 million adults, are unbanked or underbanked," a very large potential market. Competition is supposed to fill a market need, in this case defined as an underserved customer, so not only are these statistics surprising, but they raise questions about the justification for and very existence of an underserved market. They also raise questions concerning the efficiency of the FDIC's Advisory Committee on Economic Inclusion. "Freakonomics" style economic analysis will quickly be offered to explain this gap, but will miss the true reason behind the statistics. While we applaud the release of the data , it clearly shows the Committee is ineffective, to say the leas...

According to Black Enterprise Magazine , "Liberty Bank (No. 5 on the BE 100s bank list with $373 million in assets) has assumed all of the $13.5 million retail deposits of Home Federal Savings Bank and has purchased approximately $14.9 million of its assets. Home Federal, which was founded in May 1947, was 'critically undercapitalized and in an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business,' according to the OTS. Its two branches and eight employees reopened under the Liberty Bank and Trust Company banner on Monday. Liberty Bank was founded in 1972 and has expanded into seven metropolitan areas and six states while offering banking services and mortgage lending. 'The expansion of our banking network to Detroit is a significant benchmark in our development. We want to broaden our reach and provide our services to a larger audience,' said Alden J. McDonald Jr., Liberty Bank and Trust Company’s president and CEO, in a news release. 'This acquisition is anothe...

On Friday, November 6, 2009, state and federal regulators closed several minority banks, reducing the total number of minority owned banks in the US to 236 from 239. According to Marketwatch.com, "The failed institutions included (Asian-owned) United Commercial Bank of San Francisco, the main subsidiary of UCBH Holdings. The bank had $11.2 billion in total assets and was the seventh largest failure during the 2008-2009 crisis. The FDIC was appointed receiver and sold the failed bank's deposits and $10.2 billion of its assets to East West Bank of Pasadena, Calif., which also has operations in China and is a subsidiary of East West Bancorp. The Office of Thrift Supervision shut down (Black-owned) Home Federal Savings Bank of Detroit and appointed the FDIC receiver. The FDIC arranged for Liberty Bank and Trust of New Orleans to assume the failed thrift's deposits and its $14.9 million in total assets. The Missouri Division of Finance took over (Black-owned) Gateway Bank of St...

According to The Hill , "Now we learn that while many kids, hospitals and pregnant women cannot get enough of the swine flu vaccine, the major banks and Wall Street firms were given a private allocation. At best, this is a ridiculous distribution strategy; at worst, these firms gave some vaccines not to high-risk people but to high-profit traders and senior managers." And you were wondering where your $700 billion went. Pitchforks, anyone?