Cryptocurrency: Set to Eliminate Big Banks...

[grarpamp]

As the world wakes up to the power of cryptocurrency
such problematic legacies are facing extinction anyways,
not a thing their boards or investors can do when all their
users, depositors, lendees, etc have left for crypto, lol...

"... a Swiss bank account on your phone ...  -- Obama on Crypto"


Big Banks Nailed Over Woke Agenda During Annual Shareholder Meetings

As three of America's largest banks kicked off the US financial
industry's annual gatherings this week, conservative activist
investors are pummeling them over "woke" Marxist agendas, as corporate
boards have become swept up in "stakeholder capitalism" - the World
Economic Forum-endorsed concept that companies shouldn't just serve
their shareholders, but society at large.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan

    Stakeholder capitalism runs contrary to the demands of U.S.
corporate law, which holds that directors and executives have a duty
to one master: shareholders. Milton Friedman worried that a shift from
shareholder primacy would cause companies to operate less efficiently
and be less profitable, leaving investors, workers and consumers worse
off. -WSJ

Perhaps most notably, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink issued an open letter
in January to CEOs explaining that companies they invest with will
soon have to abide by sustainability rules governing climate change,
labor practices and other issues.

"Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics ... It is capitalism,"
wrote Fink - who just last year helped elect three 'climate-focused'
candidates to Exxon Mobil's 12-member board.

Conservative investors aren't having it according to Bloomberg, which
reported that both Citigroup and Bank of America were nailed at annual
shareholder meetings over vows to institute diversity quotas. Of note,
BofA encouraged employees to be "woke at work," and told white
employees to "decolonize your mind" and "cede power to people of
color," according to Fox News, citing investigative reporter
Christopher Rufo.

One group of activists, the Free Enter Prise Project at the National
Center for Public Policy Research, submitted shareholder proposals to
Citi and BofA to audit whether their diversity efforts are themselves
discriminatory. The Free Enterprise Project's Sarah Rehberg said
during Citigroup's meeting that a woke agenda means "the company
places more value on whether an employee is a woman or a traditionally
underrepresented minority than whether that individual has an
objective amount of experience or educational qualifications."

At Wells Fargo - which originated the most loans to the fossil-fuel
industry last year, conservative activists called the bank out for
donating to groups fighting climate change, "which is just Marxism
dressed up as environmentalism."

"Wells Fargo needs to take a hard look at the fix that Disney finds
itself in," said the activist, Paul Chesser - director of the
conservative National Legal and Policy Center's Corporate Integrity
Project.

"Stay out of politics and properly serve all its customers and shareholders."

Meanwhile, the tide does seem to be turning:

    A call for Wells Fargo to examine whether it’s doing enough to
support racial equity also fell short, but it garnered 36% support. At
Citigroup, more than a third of shareholders supported a proposal that
would require the bank to report how it protects Indigenous people.

That said, in response to how Citigroup will avoid Disney's situation,
CEO Jane Fraser doubled down.

"We realize not all stakeholders believe in the positions we take and
that there are certain stakeholders who believe it is not the role of
a company to make such statements," she said on Tuesday. "We
respectfully take the view that there are times when, as an employer
of more than 220,000 people, it is appropriate to engage and support
how our colleagues are treated."