Nuns hit back at Trump-emboldened bank move with SEC filing

An order of New Jersey nuns has hit back at Citi over its attempt to get the Securities & Exchange Commission to stop a shareholder vote on their contentious resolution on Indigenous rights. The move mirrors similar no-action letters filed at the SEC by four other banks seeking to stop shareholder votes on a resolution by the NYC Comptroller on energy funding ratios, indicating that banks are hoping Trump’s anti-climate stance will influence the SEC to push back on accountability by shareholders.

In a rebuttal to the SEC in response to Citi’s no-action letter the nuns state: “The proposal has not been substantially implemented and, therefore, is not subject to exclusion.”

Read the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace full rebuttal here.

The Sisters of St Joseph of Peace have filed the resolution for the fourth year in a row which has attracted support from over one in four investors, despite Citi urging shareholders to vote against it. This is the first year Citi has tried to prevent shareholders from voting on it.

The resolution has become a thorn in the side for Citi as it highlights controversial funding the bank has provided for companies accused of violating Indigenous rights, such as Petroperú in the Amazon and pipeline company Enbridge, which is building the Line 3 and Line 5 pipes in the US.

Citi contends the resolution should be dropped because it published a report last year entitled ‘Respecting the Rights of Indigenous People’. The Sisters maintain the report is inadequate and rehashes its activities rather than assessing their effectiveness. They also state that the report fails to adhere to international standards or include perspectives of impacted Indigenous communities. It adds that Indigenous nations in the Amazon last year rejected the Citi report as failing to address human rights violations.

The Citi report gives details which show how the bank is failing to act comprehensively on risks to Indigenous rights: of the 16 companies it flags as posing risks, none have been refused funding or services by the bank. Of the 37 projects which the bank identified as posing a risk to Indigenous rights, Citi refused funding for just seven.

The Sisters’ resolution sets out funding Citi has made to state-owned Petroperú, which operates the controversial Norperuano pipeline and which wants to develop the highly contested Block 64, a pristine part of the Amazon where Indigenous nations live. Just last October, Petroperú’s pipeline leaked 6,000 liters of oil in the Pastaza River in the Amazon basin, contaminating crucial fishing areas and causing food insecurity for several communities. Citi has poured $2.32 billion into oil and gas activities in the Amazon rainforest over the past 20 years, according to a report from last year.

The resolution also focuses on Citi’s $9 billion financing of Enbridge, which is behind the biggest inland oil spills in US history and the controversial Line 5 pipeline in Michigan, which the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has said should be decommissioned. At last year’s Citi annual shareholders meeting, the Sisters’ resolution was presented by Juan Mancias, tribal chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of South Texas, which is opposing Enbridge’s plans to build The Rio Bravo pipeline on his ancestral lands to feed into the Rio Grande LNG facility.

QUOTES

“We are disappointed that Citi is seeking to stop shareholders voting on our resolution which aims to assess the bank’s effectiveness in mitigating risk to investors when it comes to the impacts on Indigenous Peoples and their lands. We hope the SEC will protect the right of Citi’s shareholders to have their say and express their views on this issue. Citi has a responsibility to mitigate risk for investors. As faith-based investors, we have a responsibility to follow Church teaching to care for Earth and protect human dignity. We take our role seriously and we want Citi to take theirs seriously.” – Sister Susan Francois, of the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace, Citi shareholders and lead filer on the Indigenous rights resolution

“We, the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, have lived through ecological devastation, witnessed decades of pollution, and faced repeated threats to our self-determination due to spills caused by oil companies like Petroperú and their financiers, such as Citi. Citi attempts to portray the supposed effectiveness of its climate policies, while in reality, its clients continue trying to open new oil fields without addressing any of the damage they have caused. We dedicate our lives to defending our territories against oil exploitation. In truth, Citi is doing nothing genuinely effective to avoid harming our rights and minimizes its role as an oil investor.”  –Olivia Bisa, President of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Chapra Nation, in the North Peruvian Amazon Basin

“Citi’s attempt to block this proposal is a cowardly move to dodge investor scrutiny of its Indigenous rights commitments. The bank is quickly falling in line with the Trump administration’s anti-Native agenda. With this latest move, Citi reveals that its talk of protecting Indigenous rights was just bluster that is now crumbling with a change in political winds.” – Hannah Saggau, Senior Climate Finance Campaigner at Stand.earth

“Indigenous peoples continue to expose the reprehensible role Citi and its clients play in driving the destruction of their communities in the Peruvian Amazon, the Gulf South, and across the globe. It is clear that their organizing is working – Citi fears further exposure of these efforts to their investors. As the bank tries to appease the new administration by unapologetically backsliding on its climate commitments, its new efforts to actively de-platform and silence the voices of outspoken environmental defenders most impacted by its financing may set a dangerous precedent for financial institutions.” – Mary Mijares, Fossil Finance Campaigner at Amazon Watch 

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