CtW Investment Group on Thursday called on J.P. Morgan Chase and four other banks to examine their incentive pay and other human resource management practices over potential operational, regulatory and reputational risks from concern about retail and other client service practices.
CtW Investment Group sent letters to the lead directors of the banks, which also include Bank of America, U.S. Bank, PNC Financial Services Group and Citigroup.
In the letters, Dieter Waizenegger, CtW Investment Group executive director, said failure to undertake such examination to avoid the risks likely would lead it to oppose re-election of directors at next year's annual meetings of the companies.
CtW Investment Group's move was triggered by recent federal enforcement actions against Wells Fargo & Co. over deceptive sales practices and a call by Richard Shelby, R.-Ala. — chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs who led hearings in September on the Wells Fargo activity — for a industrywide investigation of sales practices of banks by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
CtW Investment Group works with union-sponsored pension funds, whose assets total $250 billion, to promote long-term shareholder value through shareholder activism.
