Big investors have a key role to play in shareholder activism campaigns - like our campaign with Australian Conservation Foundation about the issue of the big four banks financing deforestation!

Investors engage with the companies on issues we’ve alerted them to, and can vote their large amount of shares on resolutions that SIX and our partners lodge at the companies’ Annual General Meetings (AGMs).

I've been having a lot of conversations with big investors lately, which is a positive sign. Here's what I have been hearing back.

• Many investors are still taken aback at the scale of deforestation in Australia. When we consider deforestation, investors are first thinking of places like Borneo and Brazil - not realising that we have a huge problem on our doorstep. Together with our partner Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), I’ve been stepping investors through the scale of deforestation in Australia. This is a crucial first step towards them engaging more meaningfully with the companies they invest in about tackling this problem.
   
• But several big investors are already thinking very deeply about how to push the banks on these issues. I was surprised and pleased when a large European pension fund offered to contribute their expertise to our resolutions, to make them as effective as possible. With Commonwealth Bank’s AGM first up and fast approaching, it’s powerful to feel this movement building.
  
  
• Others have already come out publicly to support the campaign. Australian Ethical (who co-filed on our 2025 NAB resolution) have initiated a ‘collaborative engagement’ on UN Principles of Responsible Investment. That’s a way of publicly demonstrating their support for stopping financed deforestation and inviting other investors to join them in communicating this to the big four banks. After only a few weeks of this activity being up, Melior Investment Management, Bank Gutmann, 17CapitalLLP and UEthical have all joined this effort.

When we told investors we expect the banks to compare forest map satellite data showing where deforestation happened and compare it to the property boundaries of farmers they lend to, one European pension fund employee asked: 

“Do you think you’re letting the banks off the hook by holding them to a high standard, when they should be doing more without that level of information?”

To me this reflects the stronger regulations imposed on European companies to avoid deforestation in their products and services. It also reflects the power of the big four Australian banks to set the terms of the debate here. “We can’t act until we have enough data!” is a common complaint from companies when asked by SIX and others to address some problem. 

They of course can get that data (ACF linked mortgages to deforestated land with a fraction of the resources of a bank) and incentivise those farmers to take care of their land.

More and more, deforestation is popping up as a priority for big investors. Our campaign is being boosted by this change.

One example of where the winds are blowing is the incoming European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). From later this year EU importers must prove that land used to produce certain commodities (including beef, cacao and coffee) has not been subject to deforestation or forest degradation since 31 December 2020. 

Large scale changes like this can prompt more and more investors to stand with us as we push the banks to stop funding deforestation - and prepare to lodge shareholder resolutions if banks don’t act. 

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To lodge resolutions we need 100 shareholders in each company (ANZ, CBA, NAB and WBC) at least two months prior to the companies’ AGMs. 

Here’s how to get involved.  

• If you are not yet a shareholder but want to become one, the SIX app makes it easy to join the campaign. 

• If you already hold shares in these companies in the SIX app, there is no need to do anything further - you’ve already joined the campaign as a supporting shareholder, so thank you.
  
  
• If you hold big four bank shares on another trading platform, simply take 5 minutes to fill in SIX’s agency agreement to join the campaign. If you’ve previously filled in this form with SIX, there is no need to fill it in again unless your shares have changed (i.e. you have bought or sold in the banks).

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