JPMorgan shareholders reject call for more lobbying disclosures

• Key Insight: At JPMorgan's annual shareholder meetings, support for so-called "lobbying alignment" has declined since the early 2020s. 
• Supporting Data: At the company's 2026 meeting, one such proposal received 13.2% of the vote, down from the 31.6% that supported a similar measure in 2023.
• Expert Quote: "The company risks reputational damage by funding organizations that lobby against climate legislation and diversity." — Father Seamus Flinn, investment specialist at the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate

JPMorganChase shareholders are showing conspicuously less appetite for requiring the bank to match its lobbying efforts to its public statements.

At the company's annual shareholders meeting on Monday, one shareholder proposal called for a report on "the alignment of JPMorgan's lobbying and public policy advocacy with its stated public policy positions." It received 13.2% of the vote — less than half the vote for a similar measure three years ago.

In a recorded statement played during Monday's meeting, Father Seamus Finn of the Missionary Association of Mary Immaculate, a Catholic organization, argued that JPMorgan is hurt when its support for outside lobbying groups "may undercut our public positions on key issues."

For example, Finn said, the nation's largest bank has vocally supported climate action and LGBTQ rights. But at times, JPMorgan has also belonged to or funded trade associations and other organizations that work against those causes, creating the risk of an embarrassing contradiction, he argued.

"The company risks reputational damage by funding organizations that lobby against climate legislation and diversity," Finn said. "This resolution asks for more careful review by top management of such misalignment."

That argument proved unpersuasive to about 87% of the voting shareholders, who either voted against it or abstained. JPMorgan has not yet released the exact tally.

The fact that the measure failed was not unusual. Since 2020, four shareholder proposals making similar demands, including this year's, have been roundly rejected by JPMorgan's shareholders.

But Monday's results marked a steep drop from earlier this decade, when almost one-third of voters supported such measures. In 2023, a shareholder proposal requested a "report analyzing the congruence of the company's political and electioneering expenditures." That proposal won 31.6% of the vote.

And in 2021, roughly the same proposal — calling for a report on the "congruency of political and electioneering expenditures" with the bank's public statements — received 29.5% support.

One factor that has changed in the past three years is the political environment. Under the Biden administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission made it easier for shareholders to raise proposals on social and political issues at annual meetings, fostering a culture that encouraged corporate activism.

But the Trump administration has moved forcefully in the opposite direction, loosening the standard by which companies can exclude shareholder proposals. Meanwhile, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has repeatedly said shareholder meetings should only focus on matters of "material" importance to the business.

"In the past few proxy seasons, perhaps nothing has epitomized the politicization of shareholder meetings more than shareholder proposals focused on environmental and social issues," Atkins said in a 2025 speech. "These proposals consume a significant amount of management's time and impose costs on the company."

For its own part, JPMorgan urged shareholders to vote against the lobbying alignment report, arguing that it would be redundant to information the bank already discloses.

"Because we already provide detailed disclosures about our lobbying activities, trade association memberships and governance and oversight practices, the requested report would not provide shareholders with meaningful additional information and would incur unnecessary expense," the bank's board wrote in its proxy statement.

Another shareholder proposal put forward on Monday was to separate JPMorgan's CEO and board chair roles — a measure that several big banks, including Bank of America, have considered in recent years. That proposal failed as well, but received a more substantial 35.1% of the vote, down slightly from 36.6% last year.