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Friday, February 15, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Faith-Based Investing: Believers Engaging the Boardroom ...
Why, how, and to what effect do faith-based investors engage with companies to seek positive social and environmental change? A recent report, ?Believers in the Boardroom: Religious Organizations and Their Shareholder Engagement Practices? by International Interfaith Investment Group (3iG), addresses this question.
The report offers case studies from three faith-based investors?? Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Church of England, and Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust ? who lobbied financial giants such as?Goldman Sachs (GS) and Bank of America (BAC), to varying degrees of success.
Faith-based investors, according to the report, engage with companies because their religious faith leads them to support such ideals as ?stewardship, justice, care of creation and the environment, and debt relief.? They consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues relating to their investments, and where the situation demands, they lobby companies to change things for the better.
Despite the relatively small size of their assets under management (?340 million), the?Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) engaged with a financial giant that is no stranger to controversies, Goldman Sachs (GS). ?The overarching goal? of this engagement with Goldman Sachs was ?to make major players in the global financial system more attentive to the impact of financial crises on the less affluent communities across the world and the credit needs of the underserved, especially poor people.?
From 2007 to 2008, the OMI?s Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Office, lobbied Goldman Sachs for clearer disclosure on how it managed counter party risk in derivatives trading. The JPIC set up meetings with senior management and filed a shareholder resolution. The JPIC considered the engagement successful because Goldman Sachs subsequently tightened its risk management.
On the other hand, the OMI met with less success when engaging Bank of America. The focus of this engagement, which lasted from 1998 to 2000, was the development and implementation of ethical lending criteria to ensure that loans would not be used to finance ?activities which did not respect human rights, or which endangered communities,? according to the report. The OMI found that while Bank of America developed ethical lending criteria, it was unable to offer evidence that the criteria had been implemented.
With more than ?8 billion of assets under management,?the Church of England is the largest of the three faith-based investors covered in the report. The church has an Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) to ensure that investment policies do not conflict with its values. The EIAG considers its 2003?2007 engagement with UK-based supermarkets and farmers a success. This collaborative engagement was linked with a formal inquiry by the Competition Commission into the relationships between supermarkets and farmers. ?The aim was to gain fairer treatment for small farmers in the UK who were losing out in their relationships with supermarkets because of the market power of the supermarkets and the fragmented farming industry,? according to the report.
The Church of England both owns farmland and has links to farming community, which helped its engagement. Its efforts led to the production of the report ?Fair Trade Begins at Home? in November 2007, ?which contributed to the competition authorities recommending the creation of a groceries market ombudsman to oversee supermarkets? supply chain relationships.?
The Church of England was less effective in its engagement with Vedanta Resources (VED), a company that has a listing at London Stock Exchange but operates principally in India. The EIAG was concerned about the company?s human rights record, and from 2009 to 2010, conducted site visits and meet with the senior management of Vedanta. Little progress was made, however, and EIAG concluded that Vedanta was not going to change its ways, thus prompting divestment.
The third faith-based investor covered in the report is the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT), an independent endowed foundation set up by a Quaker businessman in 1904 that has ?150?200 million assets under management. JRCT objected to the fact that Reed Elsevier?s exhibition division was organizing international arms fairs.
After three years of engagement with Reed Elseiver (2004?2007) ? conducted through a variety of means, from letter writing to face-to-face meetings?? the trust divested its shares in 2007. Though JRCT owned less than 1% of the company?s shares, the collaborative engagement by the trust led to news coverage of the issue, which put pressure on Reed Elsevier. Within four months of the disinvestment by JRCT, Reed Elsevier announced its intention to sell the arms exhibitions division, and the trust later reinvested in the company.
To its credit, the?3iG report provides insights into engagement by faith-based investors, a topic not widely known or understood. Investors may have economic or noneconomic motivations for engaging with the companies on ESG issues, but the process of engagement is usually similar.
According to the report, there are several common ways that shareholders engage with companies:
- Letter writing
- Calling executives
- Asking questions at annual general meetings
- Filing resolutions
- Private dialogue with management/board
- Voting shares
- Joining action groups
- Lobbying other shareholders
Other faith-based investors, such as Islamic funds or or even conventional funds, can benefit from this practical knowledge. Perhaps, as a part of these case studies, some information on organizational arrangements for engagement, the cost of engagement, and its potential effects on the financial performance of the investments would have added more value.
But, far from being a simplistic cheering of the achievements of faith-based investors, the report is rather a sober reflection, encouraging engagement without downplaying its challenges. As stated in its conclusion, ?Undertaking shareholder engagement is not without its challenges and is not to be entered into lightly. It involves a commitment of time and resources, a need for expert investment knowledge and a juggling of priorities and timing to achieve the greatest impact.?
Please note that the content of this site should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute.
Photo credit: ?iStockphoto.com/MHJ
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Militant threats test role of a Pentagon command in Africa
02/12/13: ?The New York Times reports?created five years ago to focus on training the armed forces of dozens of African nations and strengthening social, political and economic programs, the Pentagon?s Africa Command?now finds itself on a more urgent mission: confronting a new generation of Islamist militants who are testing the United States? resolve to fight terrorism without being drawn into a major conflict. ?Some military and Congressional critics question whether the command is up to dealing with its dual mission, and some influential lawmakers warn that Africom, with its headquarters in Germany, is understaffed and poorly financed for challenges that include countering Al Qaeda?s fighters in Mali, Islamic extremists in Libya, drug traffickers in West Africa and armed rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. ?The leader of the command, Gen. Carter F. Ham, must straddle the new and the old missions, as he demonstrated one day last month when he flew to the northern reaches of this largely desert nation to watch United States troops train Niger?s fledgling border corps in basic skills to help combat Al Qaeda?s branch in North and West Africa.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
From Chief Meteorologist Bill Kelly **You can follow Bill on Facebook at: http...
Good Monday evening everyone!! :) Hope you all had a good weekend. LOTS on the weather menu tonight... hope you can join us on FOX28 News at 10 or ABC6 News a...t 11. Chilly temps, Possible Snow storm.. AND Pay your heating bill contest continues on ABC6 News at 11pm. It's a new week. Don't miss it. (Btw... map is of current windchills) - BKSee More
Source: http://www.facebook.com/WSYXABC6/posts/391716400924742
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New case of SARS-like virus shows person-to-person transmission
LONDON (Reuters) - A third patient in Britain has contracted a new SARS-like virus, becoming the second confirmed UK case in a week and showing the deadly infection is being spread from person to person, health officials said on Wednesday.
The latest case, who is a member of the family of another patient, brings the worldwide number of confirmed infections with the new virus - known as the novel coronavirus or NCoV - to 11.
Of that total, five have died. Most of those infected had recently travelled in the Middle East and three have been diagnosed in Britain.
NCoV was identified when the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued an international alert in September 2012 saying a virus previously unknown in humans had infected a Qatari man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.
The virus belongs to the same family as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome - a coronavirus that emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a tenth of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide. Symptoms common to both viruses include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.
The UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) said on Wednesday the latest patient, who is a UK resident and does not have any recent travel history, is receiving intensive care treatment at a hospital in Birmingham, central England.
"Confirmed novel coronavirus infection in a person without travel history to the Middle East suggests that person-to-person transmission has occurred, and that it occurred in the UK," said John Watson, the HPA's head of respiratory diseases.
He said the new case was a family member who was in close personal contact with another UK case confirmed on Monday and who may have been at greater risk of infection because of underlying health conditions.
Coronaviruses are typically spread like other respiratory infections such as flu, travelling in airborne droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Yet since the new virus was first identified in September, health experts say evidence of person-to-person transmission of NCoV has been limited.
Watson said the fact it had probably taken place in the latest two cases in Britain gave no reason for increased alarm.
"Although this case provides strong evidence for person-to-person transmission, the risk of infection in most circumstances is still considered to be very low," he said.
"If novel coronavirus were more infectious, we would have expected to have seen a larger number of cases than we have seen since the first case was reported three months ago.
The WHO said on Monday that the confirmation of a new British case did not alter its risk assessment but "does indicate that the virus is persistent".
The British patient confirmed on Monday had recently travelled to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and is also receiving intensive care treatment in hospital, the HPA said.
Among the 11 laboratory confirmed cases to date, five are in Saudi Arabia, with three deaths; two are in Jordan, where both patients died; three are in Britain, where all three are receiving treatment; and one was in Germany in a patient from Qatar who had since been discharged from medical care.
The WHO reiterated on Monday that at this stage there was no need for any travel or trade restrictions, or for any special screening at border points.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by John Stonestreet)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/case-sars-virus-shows-person-person-transmission-115342518.html
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
ACS Cancer Prevention Study: It's time to change a life
ATLANTA -- 11Alive is joining the American Cancer Society in an initiative to recruit volunteers in honor of our loved ones and colleagues who have battled the disease.
It is our hope for our children's children to live in world free of cancer.
Did?you know one-in-three women will get cancer in her lifetime? The odds are even greater for men, who have a one-in-two chance.
The statistics are alarming. Cancer impacts all of our lives, and for many of those diagnosed, they don't know why. Dr. Alpa Patel from the American Cancer Society is trying to change that. She is on the front lines of a historic effort to reverse the course of this deadly disease.
"We've seen, in fact, there have been recent reports in the last 20 or so years - a 20 percent decline in mortality rates from cancer," Patel said.
Gains have been made. Cancer prevention studies, commonly referred to as CPS have played a major role. In some cases, the disease is now treatable. But more research needs to be done.
So the opportunity for you to change a life is now.
"CPS?1 in the 1950's was one-million men and women from across?the country; CPS 2 was 1.2 million and in CPS 3 we're aiming for 300,000 from across the country," Patel said. ?
Of those 300,000 volunteers needed today for the next generational study, they're hoping for 5,000 from right her in metro Atlanta. Dr. Patel calls the study "The Gift of Life" for the future generations.?
"You can do this to improve what we know about the causes of cancer for our children, and our children's children," Patel said. "It's this generation?paying it forward to the next, just like the last generation paid it forward for us."
Anyone between?age 30-65?years old?can volunteer, who has never been diagnosed with cancer.
To volunteer, make an appointment at a YMCA, March 1 - March 15.
There are four steps: Fill out a consent form and survey, have your waist measured, give a small blood sample, and complete the survey every few years for 20 years.
Source: http://marietta.11alive.com/news/news/157389-acs-cancer-prevention-study-its-time-change-life
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Dental coverage cut for 450,000 Medicaid patients in Washington
KING5.com
Posted on February 11, 2013 at 6:30 PM
Updated today at 7:32 PM
For low-income Americans, health care is hard to get. For those who qualify, there's Medicaid. Right now, Medicaid covers more than a million people and will add 400,000 more if and when healthcare reform kicks in. But Medicaid has limits, one of those is dental care.
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