The SEIU Capital Stewardship Program and CtW Investment Group Webinar:

● Mehrsa Baradaran, law professor and author of The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap, who will discuss how Black communities are systematically shut out from access to banking services and why racial equity audits are relevant solutions to this problem.

● Ryan Bowers, Co-Founder of Activest, who will delve into bank investments that negatively impact communities of color.

● Saqib Bhatti, Co-Executive Director of the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), will describe current organizing efforts to reverse long-standing discriminatory practices at financial institutions.

● A bank worker who will share current stories about workplace-related discrimination.

The 2021 shareholder proxy season will see a record number of shareholder proposals addressing diversity and racial justice issues, many of them at large banks and financial institutions. These banks are not merely important holdings in our investment portfolios, they are critical for the health of the overall economy. In light of last year’s high-profile murders of Black people and the nationwide protests against racial injustice that followed, banks publicly committed to improve the diversity of their workforce and increase funding, sometimes quite substantial, to open the doors for more people to access banking services. Now, shareholder proposals will test the extent of these pledges and, in some cases, bear out the long-term reputational risks and potential financial risks of allowing racial injustice to go unaddressed.

The webinar will give some important context as we make voting decisions regarding proposals and board members who oversee these commitments to racial equity. The banking sector has a long history of playing an outsized role in perpetuating inequality by failing to issue mortgages, charging higher checking account fees, and creating “banking deserts” in majority Black communities. These policies have contributed to current racial disparities, as white households on average still hold 10 times as much wealth as the average Black household. Moreover, the racial wealth gap has cost the U.S. economy up to $16 trillion over the last 20 years. Large banks also lag behind in hiring, retaining, and promoting diverse talent in their workforce and leadership.