Mark and I attended the fall meetings of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) last week in NYC, while the financial system meltdown dominated the news. During the week, several ICCR members crafted a response to the crisis, available here.

For a number of years, ICCR members have filed shareholder resolutions with financial firms questioning the business soundness and ethics of many practices relating to sub-prime and predatory lending, off balance sheet liabilities, and other practices which have now proven to be catastrophic to the health of financial firms and the financial system. During dialogs with ICCR representatives in the last several years, virtually all of the companies (including Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch) defended their practices and resisted calls for more transparency. If these companies had heeded ICCR’s calls and modified their policies, the current crisis could have been lessened, or even avoided.

On issues like these, ICCR is often ahead of the curve, anticipating problems before they rise to the surface. As a member of ICCR, MMA will continue to press for more responsible practices at the remaining financial institutions, as well as anticipate the next major issues - at this point we feel it may be credit card debt. It is our hope that through our efforts, we can encourage sound and just corporate practices, and avert the type of crisis we are now experiencing.