Published by Ethical Corporation.

Genocide-free investment

A shareholder proposal asking JPMorgan Chase to adopt a genocide-free investment policy grabbed 7.69% of the vote at a recent shareholder meeting – backing that is high enough for it to be added to the proxy ballot at JPMorgan Chase’s 2012 annual meeting.

Proposal 10 is led by Investors Against Genocide (IAG), a citizen-led initiative to persuade mutual funds and other investment firms to commit to genocide-free investing.

While IAG has historically approached individual mutual funds, JPMorgan Chase was considered an appropriate target for IAG’s first shareholder proposal to a corporation, “given its high public profile, the millions of consumers in its retail banking and credit card businesses, and its very large holdings in PetroChina,” says Eric Cohen, IAG’s co-founder and chairman.

In Proposal 10 IAG points to JPMorgan’s $1.3bn worth of shares in PetroChina, which it says is internationally recognised as the worst offender in funding the Sudan government’s genocide in Darfur.

The bank sought to keep the proposal off the 2012 proxy ballot, stating: “While we share the proponents’ concern about human rights generally and about genocide in particular, we believe that the firm’s existing policies and procedures appropriately address these issues.” The company said it doesn’t do business with companies legally identified as directing or contributing to violence in Sudan.

Nonetheless, the bank’s request was rejected by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

“We hope that the voting at JPMorgan Chase’s annual meeting will cause JPMorgan Chase to reconsider its opposition to adopting a policy of avoiding investments tied to genocide,” says Cohen. “If not, we will bring genocide-free investing forward for consideration at next year’s annual meeting, knowing that overwhelmingly, Americans, once they become aware, do not want their pensions and family savings connected to genocide.”