Jerry Bowyer: Shareholder engagement

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, March 25th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. WORLD Opinions contributor Jerry Bowyer says when shareholders talk to companies and not just about companies, that’s when real change can happen.

JERRY BOWYER, COMMENTATOR: Christian conservatives and corporate America have spent a rough several years going through a messy divorce. Maybe it started in 2015, when Salesforce lived up to its name…by forcing Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to abandon support for a state-level version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Maybe it was Target’s decision in 2016 to engage in a same-sex affair with activist groups whose demands started with bathroom privileges. They moved on to book banning, and eventually to merch partnerships with a trans Satanist. And then there’s Disney and Bud Light. Even Tractor Supply and John Deere flirted with pronoun mandates and toxic HR struggle sessions. Let’s be honest: It sure looked like the once happy couple, conservatives and corporate America, betrothed in the Reagan coalition, had developed irreconcilable differences.

But then again, maybe it wasn’t a divorce. Maybe it was just a trial separation.

Consider JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the world. In 2022, Chase closed the account of former U.S. ambassador Sam Brownback after he founded the National Committee for Religious Freedom. Brownback then received inconsistent answers when he requested an explanation. His experience became part of a broader investigation into the reasons behind banks shutting down the accounts of conservative and religious clients. The list of debanking victims includes organizations like Indigenous Advance and even Melania and Barron Trump. Throughout this wave of debanking, JPMorgan Chase stood out as a key player due to its sheer size. Chase apologized for the debanking but argued (eventually) that it was a good faith error, not a policy. The facts of the matter are murky.

Now banks argue that federal regulations raise the risk of certain banking customers, especially those with international elements. Whether banks had their arms twisted into becoming the instruments of cancel-culture or whether this provided a ready excuse to impose elite culture norms on the rest of us is not clear. Either way, this is clearly an opportunity for conservatives and banks to team up again and roll-back the regulatory state. And thanks to the persistence of a coalition of savvy attorneys, financial professionals, and concerned citizens, the tide is turning.

In 2023, JPMorgan removed a “social risk” clause from its payment processing policies, putting an end to using vague terms like “intolerance” and “hate” to determine whether a customer could be debanked. But the most significant breakthrough came just a few days ago when Chase agreed to implement a policy change that explicitly protects both customers and employees from discrimination based on their religious or political beliefs. Put simply, this is the work of years to lock in an actual policy change, negotiated in good faith, as opposed to public statements cast from a safe distance.

What we’ve seen is that progress comes from talking to companies rather than talking about them. Political outrage machines are more about fundraising and brand building than they are about being salt and light. Of course, engagement doesn’t always work. Conversations with Bank of America show some banks are just not ready to listen to half the country. Some CEOs are true believers in using shareholder money for social causes, but others are true believers in shareholder capitalism. JPMorgan Chase’s CEO seems to be among the latter.

But it’s important to remember that shareholder capitalism requires shareholder engagement. Shareholders have power. One citizen and her financial advisor showed us that. I, for one, believe that the marriage between business and conservatives can be saved, but like with any marriage, it takes work.

I’m Jerry Bowyer.

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