Ross Kerber, Elizabeth Dilts Marshall

NEW YORK/BOSTON – Shareholder requests asking banks for stronger climate action by ending fossil fuel-financed financing failed to gain much support from investors at Tuesday’s meeting.

Investors Citigroup Bank of America (NYSE) and Citigroup (NYSE) did not support proposals asking banks to cease financing fossil fuels. According to preliminary figures provided by bank executives, 13% and 11% of Citigroup shares expressed support for the proposals.

Wells Fargo (NYSE:) & Co investors gave less than 11% support to a similar proposal asking the bank adopt a similar policy by the end of 2022.

We closely watched the shareholder resolutions as an indicator of investors’ willingness to weigh rising energy prices against climate concerns.

Many other banks, insurance companies and financial institutions will also face similar shareholder proposals during their annual meetings later in the year.

Heidi Welsh, the executive director at the Sustainable Investments Institute which monitors shareholder resolutions said that these results probably reflect current instability in energy markets as well as activists’ difficulty in getting large mutual funds to support them.

She stated, “These results are quite low.”

Investors asked bank executives and directors questions about a variety of environmental and social policies. These questions were based on strongly held beliefs by humanitarian and environmental activists. They asked banks for more pro-environmental policies and questioned bank executives about racial equality among their employees.

Jane Fraser, Chief Executive of Citigroup was asked by the Texas legislature to discuss a policy covering travel expenses for employees traveling out of state to have an abortion.

This is an area that people are passionate about, and we know it. Fraser stated that it was not the intention of this benefit to make a comment about sensitive issues. Fraser reiterated that for years, the bank reimbursed healthcare workers for their travel expenses.

Citi’s shareholder proposal for a report about the effectiveness of its policies on humanitarian, environmental, and other issues regarding indigenous communities received mixed support, with 34% voting in support.

None of the shareholders proposals from Citi, Bank of America and Wells got a majority of votes.

Each bank’s shareholders voted unanimously to elect directors and approve the 2021 pay packages of executives.