Bank of America Corporation (BAC) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Remarks made during today's Annual Meeting of Shareholders may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that can cause actual results to materially differ from expectations are detailed in Bank of America's SEC filings, including the 2021 Form 10-K available on Bank of America's Investor Relations website. at investors.bankofamerica.com. I'll turn the call over to Brian Moynihan, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of America.

Good morning, and thank you, operator. This is Brian Moynihan, and welcome to Bank of America's 2022 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I want to thank everyone for joining us today via webcast. The meeting agenda and the rules of conduct for today's meeting are available on the virtual meeting website, and these rules are now in effect. In the event of a technical malfunction or other disruption that interferes with our ability to continue the webcast meeting prior to the closing of the polls for voting, the polls, if not previously open for voting, will open immediately and will close 5 minutes thereafter. All votes received prior to the time the polls are closed will be counted, and the meeting will not be reconvened and the results will be announced publicly. With that, I now call the 2022 Bank of America Corporation Annual Meeting of Shareholders to order. At today's meeting, we will hear remarks from our Lead Independent Director, Lionel Nowell. We will then consider the proposals to be voted on during the meeting. After all the proposals are presented, we will answer questions about the proposals from you, our shareholders. Questions can be submitted on our virtual meeting website when we get to that portion of the meeting. [Operator Instructions]. In addition, please indicate if your question relates to when the proposal be voted so they can answer before the poll is closed. After the polls close, I will present a quick update on our company and will then provide the preliminary voting results before concluding today's meeting. Following the adjournment of the formal meeting, we have reserved approximately 30 minutes to address general questions from your shareholders about your company, Bank of America's business. For personal financial matters or questions related to your account, I encourage customers to contact our customer service representatives directly for personalized assistance through the link or phone number included in the rules of conduct for today's meeting. In addition to Lionel and myself, we are joined today by the other members of your Board of Directors, all of whom are nominated for election at this meeting: Sharon Allen, Frank Bramble, Pierre de Weck, Arnold Donald, Linda Hudson, Monica Lozano, Denise Ramos, Clayton Rose, Mike White, Tom Woods, Dave Yost and Maria Zuber. I want to take a moment to note that after serving more than 18 years on Bank of America's Board, including most recently as a Chair of Corporate Governance, ESG and Sustainability Committee, Tom May has reached the retirement age of 75 and will retire with this meeting. We all thank Tom for his great service to our company. In addition, after serving more than 12 years on the Board, Sue Bies decided not to seek reelection 1 year ahead of her reaching our retirement age of 75, and Sue will also retire with today's meeting. Sue, we want to thank you for your great service to our company. Our Lead Independent Director, Lionel Nowell, will now make a few remarks. Lionel has been a member of our Board of Directors since January 2013 and has served as our lead independent director since our annual meeting last year. Lionel?

Thank you, Brian. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to welcome everyone to the 2022 Shareholders' Meeting. We appreciate your ongoing support, and thank you for your continued investment in Bank of America. In 2021, Bank of America delivered its strongest year of earnings in the company's history, and we plan to continue to deliver for our shareholders, clients, teammates and communities across the world by continuing to focus on responsible growth. I would like to take this opportunity to commend Brian, the management team and all of the Bank of America teammates for their outstanding efforts and achievement. For more details on Bank of America's historical performance, strategic initiatives, your Board of Directors and other information, you can refer to our annual report and proxy material. I assumed the role as the Board Lead Independent Director at the conclusion of last year's shareholders' meeting. Over the past year, I've enjoyed meeting and engaging with many of our shareholders on a variety of topics, including the Board's oversight responsibilities and corporate governance practices, Bank of America's efforts to support sustainable environmental transition and inclusive social development and the outlook for the company's long-term future. Reflecting on the company's performance and my conversation with shareholders, it is evident that not only did the Bank of America team achieve record earnings in 2021 but they did it the right way by delivering profits and purpose. Importantly, the Board and I value the thoughtful insights and perspectives our shareholders bring, and I look forward to maintaining regular and proactive engagements throughout the coming year. Looking to the future, all of this positions Bank of America well to deliver responsible and sustainable growth in 2022 and beyond. Once again, thank you for your continued support of and investment in the success at Bank of America. I will now turn the call back to Brian.

Thank you, Lionel, and thank you for serving as our lead independent director so ably. Ross Jeffries, our Corporate Secretary, will now review the meeting rules and present the Corporate Secretary's report. Ross?

Thank you, Brian. As Brian noted, today, we'll consider the 7 items for shareholder vote, 4 management proposals and 3 shareholder proposals included in our 2022 proxy statement. Shareholder proponents will have up to 3 minutes to discuss their proposals. After the proposals have been presented, we will close the polls, tabulate the votes and announce the preliminary voting results. Again, shareholders may submit questions on the virtual meeting website. [Operator Instructions] You may vote the shares you hold through the virtual meeting website until the polls are closed. However, if you have already submitted your proxy to vote on these matters, you do not need to vote again unless you want to change your vote. Notice of today's meeting and the related proxy materials or a notice of Internet availability of these materials were mailed beginning March 7, 2022 to all shareholders of record as of March 1, 2022. Belinda Massafra, a representative of Broadridge Financial Services, has been appointed inspector of election and is participating in today's meeting by phone. She has advised me that holders of shares representing at least 82% of the shares entitled to vote are present in person or represented by proxy, which constitutes a quorum.

Thank you, Ross. I declare that a quorum is present. I'd like to take a moment to recognize a couple of talented Bank of America teammates who are serving as proxies for today's meeting. They are Hari Gopalkrishnan, who is a Managing Director of Retail, Preferred, Small Business, Wealth Management Technology, but he helps us develop all the leading technology we have to implement digital capacity throughout the company and has done a great job for us; and then we have Wendy Stewart, who leads our -- 1 of our 8 lines of business, our Global Commercial Bank, which serves middle market customers throughout America and does a great job doing that. Thank you, Hari and Wendy, for joining us today by phone and serving as proxies. Also joining us on the phone today are Lisa Sawicki and Richard Sleigh. They are representatives from our registered public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. We're now ready to consider the 7 items that are up for shareholder vote. The polls are now open to vote on these proposals. You can now submit your questions regarding these proposals, and we will answer them after the proposals are presented before the polls close. Those questions that relate to the proposals only in this section of the meeting, please. The 4 management proposals are: number one, electing our 14 director nominees; number two, approving our executive compensation through an advisory nonbinding Say on Pay resolution; number three, ratifying the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2022; and number four, ratifying the Delaware Exclusive Forum Provision or bylaws. There are also 3 shareholder proposals that were included in the proxy statement to be presented. The first shareholder proposal relates to civil rights and nondiscrimination audit and was submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Scott Shepard will present this proposal on their behalf. Mr. Shepard, you have 3 minutes, and you'll hear a double beep when you have 30 seconds remaining. And in 3 minutes, the line will be muted. Please go ahead.

In its statement opposing our proposal, the company spends an astonishing number of words to prove, without any possible doubt, why our proposal is so necessary and why all shareholders should support it. First, the company willfully ignores and actively misrepresents the purpose and meaning of our proposal. What we are asking the company for is a report that focuses on whether, in its myriad diversity, inclusion and equity efforts, the company is discriminating against employees that it has not honored with the label diverse. And we ask that in putting together the report, the company consult with experts from a wide range of political and intellectual viewpoints, including those of the center right, representing the majority of Americans and almost certainly the majority of both ultimate Bank of America shareholders and employees. In its opposition, the company pretended that we don't ask for a general racial equity audit. In its pretense and in reciting the many, many Bank of America programs that discriminate by race, the company accidentally completely endorsed our proposal. The company failed even to acknowledge that all of its employees have civil rights, and not only that, but have the same civil rights as all other employees. In its explicit support for racial equity, the bank illegally and immorally rejects this basic civic fact. Equity means current discrimination now to make up for other discrimination against other people by other people in the past. And it also means dividing national wealth and power by a racial spoil system, with each racial and other identity group getting its proportional share. The first tenet of equity then is plainly illegal. The law protects all Americans from discrimination by race, sex, orientation and other protected categories, whether or not Bank of America or hard left critical theory honor them with the label diverse or oppressed. The company's opposition is mostly a catalog of shareholder-funded programs that proudly discriminate by race and other illegal classifications. All shareholders must be worried when the company spends their money to discriminate so flagrantly and thereby create such massive legal, regulatory, litigation and reputational risk. As for the second tenet of equity, the racial spoil system, it is appalling for racial spoils to be embraced by a too big to fail bank, which is ultimately backstopped by all American taxpayers, not just diverse ones. And it's ludicrous that a billionaire CEO, white, male and straight, connives in this endorsement while keeping all his riches and power because the inevitable consequences of that combination are, it's just math, that he is happily consigning millions of white people for white people to penury and powerlessness so the spoils can be redistributed while he keeps such an immense portion of the white share for himself. When Bank of America was caught sponsoring and offering to employees training that taught that whites and whiteness are uniquely evil, they brushed it off, the bank brushed it off as a little local slip-up. Imagine what its response would have been if it had similarly sponsored training teaching the same about blacks and blackness, and you can see how deep the real systemic race is in the Bank of America goes.

The next shareholder proposal relates to the adoption of a policy to cease financing new fossil fuel supplies and was submitted by Sada Geuss. Kate Monahan of Trillium Asset Management and Sharon Lavigne will present this proposal on their behalf. Ms. Monahan and Ms. Lavigne, you have 3 minutes. You'll hear a double beep when you have 30 seconds remaining and in 3 minutes, your line will be muted. Please go ahead.

Greetings to the Board, management team and fellow shareholders. My name is Kate Monahan, director of Shareholder Advocacy at Trillium Asset Management, and I hereby move proposal #6. This proposal asks Bank of America to build upon its net zero commitment by adopting a policy to take available actions to help ensure that its financing does not contribute to new fossil fuel supplies that would be inconsistent with the International Energy Agency's net zero emissions by 2050 scenario. Bank of America has committed to net zero emissions by 2050, but the International Energy Agency is clear that in order to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and limit warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, no investment in new fossil fuel supply is required. By continuing to finance new fossil fuel supplies, Bank of America is undermining its own commitment, endangering its reputation and exposing the global economies to existential risk. For these reasons, we urge shareholders to vote for proposal #6. And now I'm honored to introduce Ms. Sharon Lavigne, activist and founder of the Louisiana safety and environmental justice group, Rise St. James.

This is Sharon Lavigne, Founder and Director of Rise St. James in St. James Parish in Louisiana. Rise St. James started in the fall of 2018 when the citizens of St. James Parish became aware that yet another petrochemical plant would be constructed within an area that's already inundated with industry. Formosa Plastics plan to build a $12 billion petrochemical complex in Louisiana's Cancer Alley. The predominantly black community of St. James is already overburdened with pollution, making the project, which would double the toxic air pollution, a litmus test for environmental racism. Over the course of the last few years, Rise St. James has been engaging potential financiers of the Formosa Sunshine Project by writing letters to banks and asking for one-on-one meetings to discuss the climate and environmental disaster the project would present should it be constructed. We have had the pleasure of speaking with several Bank of America representatives in the last couple of months. We are grateful for the relationship we are building with you all and look forward to continuing the conversation in the months to come. We invite you to ask more questions about the industries we are fighting, the fight of our life. We ask that all potential financiers of the proposed Formosa Plastics Sunshine Project to reconsider their decision. We need Bank of America to pledge to divest, defund and denounce this proposed project. We implore you to make a public statement reiterating your disapproval of the construction of the project as Formosa Plastics have yet to provide how its existence would benefit our communities. Help all of us fighting on the frontline in the struggle against environmental racism by refusing to fund this project. Thank you.

Thank you. And now we'll go to the next and final shareholder proposal. It relates to reporting on charitable donations and was submitted by the National Legal and Policy Center. Peter Flaherty of the NLPC is on the line to present the proposal on their behalf. Mr. Flaherty, you have 3 minutes to present your proposal. You'll hear a double beep when you have 30 seconds remaining. And at 3 minutes, your line will be muted. Please go ahead.

Chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center. The complete text summary remarks will be posted on our website, nlpc.org. In December, the New York Post reported that Bank of America executives were telling younger staffers to dress down to avoid getting mugged on their way to work. Ironic because Bank of America and the Bank of America Foundation have bankrolled the very forces responsible for the current crime wave. Maybe that is why the company opposes our efforts for disclosure of its charitable giving. Much of it is not charitable at all, but political. Following the 2020 riots, the bank pledged $1 billion to organizations to address alleged "systemic racism." This allegation is a basis for defunding the police, closing jails and vilifying police officers. Of course, this movement is now in tatters. Defunding the police is a disaster, with those who promoted it now running for cover. It's intellectual author, Marxist Patrisse Cullors, has been exposed by my organization to own 4 homes. Her group, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, has bought 2 mansions, each costing $6 million. As if the bank's embrace of group identity politics was not complete, CEO, Brian Moynihan, announced last year he would direct $1 million to Asian advocacy groups. Of course, the money goes only to left wing Asian groups, none of which oppose actual systemic racism against Asians in the form of quotas that exist at every university in this country. The left furiously opposes a lawsuit by Asian students who are denied admission to Harvard because of this bamboo ceiling. You would think that a capitalist institution would support free markets. Instead, it bankrolls a host of anti-business activists who wage war on fossil fuels. Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the world was on the verge of an energy crisis caused by first world activists, the result of which can only be food shortages and social unrest in poor countries. Now the folly of the West, dependent on Russia for energy, is plain to see. Will Mr. Moynihan prattle on about sustainability and ESG? Or will he allow the free market to operate and allow our country to reachieve energy security? Activism by woke CEOs may be reaching its limits, as Disney's Robert Chapek is finding out the hard way. BOA bankrolls the groups that claim gender is a form of oppression and that kindergartners must be forced to confront it. Years of free money from the Federal Reserve have greatly enhanced the personal fortunes of executives like Mr. Moynihan and the political influence of corporate America, even as the rest of us face sky-high gas prices and ruinous inflation. Public opinion show dissatisfaction with big corporations at an all-time high. I can't imagine why. Thank you.

We'll now respond to any questions from the shareholders that relates solely to the 7 proposals that will be voted on today. Lee McEntire, our Bank of America's Head of Investor Relations, our shareholder relations area; Lauren Mogensen, our Global General Counsel; and Ross Jeffries, our Corporate Secretary, are here today to assist with the question. I'll pause to understand whether any questions have been submitted. Have we any questions on the submitted -- on the proposals?

Yes, Brian. Let me begin. The first question is, since the Paris agreement was adopted, Bank of America's top 2 fossil fuel clients have been Exxon and Occidental, both of which plan to expand production indefinitely. Exxon was also Bank of America's top fossil fuel client in 2021. Bank of America wants to support its clients in the energy transition but not all will be willing to change. Will Bank of America commit to ending relationships with clients that refuse to transition in line with limiting climate change to 1.5 degrees?

So you mentioned the transition and what's referred to as just transition, which includes the energy companies participating as well as the asset people, the managed assets for people, people who invest in companies. Our middle market companies are all making transition. So we will work with our clients to help that transition take place. But at the end of the day, it's their transition. The companies you name, I've worked with personally and closely on these issues, and they are committed to making changes, as are many other companies. So we work with CEOs and other companies around the world to help that transition take place, will continue to do so. Thank you.

Thank you, Brian. I'll go to the next question. Another question on climate. In 2021, Bank of America played lead roles in a $12.5 billion bond issuance to Qatar Energy and a $10 billion loan to Exxon, the #1 and #4 upstream expansion companies in the world, together responsible for almost 15% of planned new oil and gas. The climate cannot afford a multiyear grace period for business as usual financing that threatens to lock in runaway global warming. Will Bank of America immediately begin reducing its financed emissions year-on-year in absolute terms?

Recently, we published our targets for our portfolios across time. So we have our basic net zero commitment, and we have plans to achieve that given our customers' transitions. And so on specific companies, it will depend on what they're doing over time. But you can see that in our recently announced targets by portfolios, which is consistent with TCFD and other types of things and the commitments to GFANZ and other organizations. So we work closely with all these, and we'll continue to monitor both our client relationships, our portfolios to achieve what we believe is a consistent platform to help a just transition take place, which is a transition not only for developed societies like America, but transitions that have to affect the societies around the world.

Okay. Thank you, Brian. I'm going to go to another climate question. The International Energy Agency, the world's preeminent energy experts, found that in order for the world to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, there is no need for investment in fossil fuel supply effective immediately. How is continued financing for fossil fuel expansion consistent with the bank's own commitment to reach net zero financed emissions by 2050?

Well, it is consistent. We've built -- that's why we built the targets to lay out our path forward. And working with all kinds of companies, having been to places that recently that our energy producers in Fargo, North Dakota, talking to them, basically the carbon capture storage and other means to address the problems are actively being pursued by some companies. There's -- we're the largest financier of wind and solar in the U.S. You can see that in our financial reports where there's $1 billion of -- round numbers of tax credits every quarter of statutory rates, 20-odd percent and our reported rates around 10%, 11%, all due to financing those and some in-housing. And so we continue to provide financing for their transition, and we continue to provide it. And well, there are various authorities and people out there speaking. At the end of the day, we published our targets. Buyer portfolios are consistent with our commitment.

Thank you, Brian. The next question is for clarity, is the basis for proposal 5 to audit and potentially correct the perceived risk of discrimination against white individuals or reverse discrimination brought upon by a racial spoils approach?

I think you can read. The proxy statement states the reason for the proposal and you heard from the proponent earlier. And so I'd leave it at that. They've made their position as to why they think it's needed.

Okay. We're looking for one more question, Brian, that is coming in. Brian, in 2020, Bank of America became the last major U.S. bank to rule out new funding for new drilling in the Arctic. However, the following year, BofA provided nearly $400 million of financing for top Arctic oil companies, placing it seventh among the world's worst financiers of Arctic oil and gas. How does the bank reconcile its increased financing for Arctic oil and gas with its own Arctic exclusion policy?

The policy is -- our policy -- I think there are companies that have operations throughout the whole world that we provide financing to, and I think you might be conflating the two things. Just for point of reference, for people to have it in their minds, last year, we did $250 billion, meaning, in the year 2021, of sustainable finance during that single year. And we have $1.5 trillion commitment for all kinds of sustainable finances, $1 trillion to the environment. So we are helping that transition take place. But we've been specific about the Arctic in terms of projects in the Arctic, and we're sticking to that. So let's -- we have no more proposal questions, and let's go to the -- that being said, I declare that the polls are now closed. And the -- I'll now talk again about how we run our company with a focus on responsible growth. And I'll highlight how that focus helps us drive profits and purpose in 2021 and deliver great results for you, dear shareholders, and customers and clients constituencies we serve. Before we take a look at performance, I'd like to start by thanking my 208,000 teammates for their efforts on our behalf, your behalf, in 2021 and for everything they continue to do for our company and albeit in 2020 and '21 in extremely unusual circumstances. I'd also like to thank my management team. And as you know, we announced some senior leadership updates since last September, and that management team had been together for a long time and with retirements, well, that team changed. Our current management team has more diversity with gender and race than ever before in the company's history. I'd like to recognize those leaders who retired: Ann Finucane, David Leitch, Tom Montag and Andrea Smith, four great leaders who had more than 75 years of service to our company. They helped us deliver great results for all of us and have been instrumental in developing a strong bench of future leaders that you can now see on the management team. I'd also like to thank the Board of Directors and our Lead Independent Director, Lionel Nowell, for their leadership and stewardship during 2021 and beyond. Turning to our performance of the company in 2021. As I mentioned earlier, we run our company with a focus on responsible growth, which has 4 pillars. We must grow in the market, no excuses. What does that mean? That means we're winning market share and customers like our products and services. We must grow with the customer focus. Our growth is organic. It's illegal for us to make an acquisition, so we have to drive all organic growth. We must grow within our risk framework, making sure we manage both growth and risk in equal balance. And we must grow in a sustainable manner. And for us, that has 3 sub-pillars: be a great place for our teammates to work; share our success with our communities; and most importantly, driving operational excellence, which drives the efficiency in our company, which gives us the money to invest in new products, new services and many other things. By driving each of those pillars in 2021, we delivered a very strong year. We reported full year net income of $32.0 billion after-tax. That translated into $3.57 per diluted share. We had $89 billion in revenue. And as you saw in our first quarter results, we carried that momentum into this year, delivering another $7 billion after-tax in net income or $0.80 a share. We managed expenses well and returned to positive operating leverage in the last 3 quarters, something we've done for 20 quarters before the pandemic. We grew deposits and we grew loans, showing our clients want to do more with us. We strengthened our balance sheet to help navigate the future. And by driving responsible growth, we continue to deliver for you, our shareholders, our clients, our teammates and the communities in which we work and live. So let's touch on each of those constituencies. For you, our shareholders, whether you're new or long-term shareholder, our stock has performed well. During 2021, our stock increased 47%, outpacing the Standard & Poor's Index and the KBW Bank Index. As of year-end 2021, we also outperformed the KBW Bank index over 3-, 5- and 10-year periods. Since the beginning of the year, as you witnessed in the debates about inflation and other matters, bank stocks have moved lower on the back of economic concerns, which have been accelerated by geopolitical tensions. During 2021, we also increased our quarterly stock dividend by 17%, and we returned $32 billion in capital to our shareholders, even though we made substantial investments in our teammates, our communities, our physical plan, our technology and many other areas. It's important to note, we've returned this capital while at the same time making those investments. Now let's switch to our clients. As a reminder, we go to market through 8 lines of business run by talented teammates, backed up by the teammates across the franchise. This allows us to serve clients through the full range of their financial needs through a combination of what we call high tech and high touch. We continue to grow by adding and deepening relationships as people, companies and organizations turn to us to support their financial needs. You can see examples of that in our first quarter results: strong loan and deposit growth; total consumer checking accounts reaching an all-time high of 34.8 million accounts, with 228,000 net new checking accounts during that first quarter alone; thousands of new wealth management relations during the quarter, with $150 billion in client flows over the last 12 months; good momentum with our commercial clients, we saw green shoots in loans growth 12 months ago and commercial loans are [ now up ] $50 billion in the past 6 months. In investment banking, there was an industry-wide decrease in equity and debt issuances as the market turmoil took place in the first quarter. But our team delivered a solid first quarter following 4 record quarters in 2021, and we grew market share in many areas. Our Global Transaction Services team grew revenue over the prior period. Our Global Markets team saw more than $15 billion of sales and trading volume in 2021 alone. And again, in the first quarter, we delivered $4.7 billion of sales and trading revenue, which included a record $2 billion in the quarter in equity sales and trading revenue. And during the first quarter, we didn't have a single day of trading losses despite the volatility in the quarter. We also continue our geographical financial center expansion, helping bring our brand to new markets and new customers, including Denver, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati and Louisville and Lexington. And we continue to gain retail market share in key markets. In 25 of the top 30 markets across America, we remain ranked #1, 2 or 3. In 16 of those markets, more than 3x the number of the closest peer, we are #1. This year, our plan is to open up nearly 100 new financial centers and renovate another 850. We've done all this while keeping client experience scores near record highs. We also continued to innovate and advance our digital capabilities during 2021. This helps deepen our client relationships. It enhances our ability to deliver products and services and reduces cost. We recently surpassed 54 million verified digital users, an all-time high. Customer engagement grew significantly during 2021, and we saw $10.5 billion digital log-ins during the year. More than half our sales in this first quarter are now coming through digital channels. To give you a sense of the growth we're driving in the digital area, Erica interactions, our artificial intelligence-based personal assistant that you can all access, are now 7x what they were prepandemic. In addition, we're now processing more Zelle transactions than our customers -- our consumer customers are writing in checks. On the commercial side, client log-ins to our CashPro App in the first quarter jumped 51% over the prior year to $1.7 million, with payments approved on the app more than doubling to $454 billion. Now let's switch to our teammates, another constituency. Key to driving response growth is being a great place to work for our teammates, and we continue to invest and support our global team. That begins with recognizing and rewarding the performance of our great team. Last year, we paid out special compensation awards totaling $1 billion for 2021 alone to 97% of our global team. This was the fifth year we have done so. We've also increased our U.S. minimum hourly wage to $21 on the path to $25 by 2025. We also expanded our benefits and resources for teammates and their families. That includes support for health and safety, such as in-office vaccination clinics. We've also expanded support for emotional wellness through our employee assistance program. Professional development is another priority for us. We hire with a career mindset and offer programs and resources to help our teammates gain new skills and grow their careers. For example, just in the last year alone, this -- your company provided $22 million in tuition assistance to our teammates. Another way we make our company a great place to work is by driving diverse representation throughout the company and promoting inclusive workplace in which all the teammates can be their best. You can read about more progress in those areas on Page 46 to 51 of our annual report. In today's tight labor market, all these initiatives are particularly important in attracting and retaining top talent, and you can see that in our numbers. We continue to see strong interest from job applicants in the market. In 2021 alone, we welcomed more than 26,000 new teammates to our company. In terms of retaining talent, our rate of attrition in 2021 was comparable to what it was prior to pandemic and down from where we were in 2012. We continue to monitor this closely under tight labor conditions because our ability to attract and retain top talent is key to delivering for you, our clients, and for our shareholders. For our communities, by driving responsive growth across 8 lines of business, we also deliver for our communities to help address major priorities facing society. This includes the transition to a low-carbon economy and advancement of racial equality and economic opportunity. We did this by aligning all of our activities to drive progress. This includes [indiscernible] our operations, our human resources, our client-facing capabilities, our research team and many other areas. I'll give you some examples of what this looks like in practice. In 2021, we deployed, as I said earlier, $250 billion to help our clients fund their progress towards environmental transition and includes the social development goals. Another example is our work to create opportunity. We do that inside our company as we look in the mirror by serving as a company of opportunity for people to recognize their hopes and dreams. I mentioned earlier our path to U.S. minimum wage from $25 by 2025. Another example is our recently expanded commitment to hire 10,000 teammates from lower and moderate income communities by 2025. We also help create opportunities outside our company when we look out the window. For example, we invested $300 million and more in 100 minority-focused funds across the U.S., which provide capital to Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American and women entrepreneurs. We've also tripled our affordable homeownership commitment to $15 billion to help more lower and moderate income families purchase a home. You can read about these and many more examples of how we are delivering for our communities and for society in our annual report. You can also find our up-to-date reporting on stakeholder capital metrics, which measure and reflect the company's progress as aligned in United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or the SDGs. We believe these metrics help demonstrate how we assess and deliver long-term value for our shareholders, and I encourage you to review them in connection to the rest of our annual report, our proxy statement and our other public disclosures. As I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, we are focused both on driving profits and purpose. There's no trade-off between the two. We can and must do both to be successful long term, and that's what we call responsible growth. And with that, we're now going to review the preliminary voting results before we go to our general Q&A. And you can start to submit your questions on general Q&A now. And Ross, would you please report on the preliminary voting results?

Our Inspector of Election reports on the following preliminary results. All 14 director nominees have been duly elected to the Board of Directors. The advisory vote on executive compensation has been approved with approximately 94% support. The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers has been ratified. And the Delaware Exclusive Forum Provision in our bylaws has been ratified with approximately 89% support. The shareholder proposal requesting a civil rights and nondiscrimination audit did not pass with approximately 2% support. The shareholder proposal requesting adoption of a policy to cease financing new fossil fuel did not pass with approximately 11% support. And the shareholder proposal requesting a report on charitable donations did not pass with approximately 3% support. Final voting results will be reported in a Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 4 business days of today's meeting.

Thank you, Ross. We now completed the official business of the meeting, and the formal meeting is now adjourned. We will now answer questions about Bank of America that are submitted by our shareholders. As a reminder, the rules of meeting remain in effect. And if you have any questions about a personal financial matter, I encourage you to go to the link or phone number in the rules of meeting for direct, personalized assistance. If we don't have time to answer the questions in today's meeting, please contact us directly through our Investor Relations website. [Operator Instructions]. And so I'm going to ask Lee, are there any questions to be read?

Yes, Brian, thank you. The first question, how did management respond to President Biden's questionable COVID vaccine mandate issued in September of 2021?

Well, I think we have now in the process of normalizing our company's operations. And so we never had a mandate in the company and in fact, now we're calling back all teammates to work, vaccinated and unvaccinated, and that is happening during the month of May.

Okay. Thank you, Brian. The next question is a question about expansion plans for our financial centers into new markets. There's an interested shareholder from Louisiana where there is no physical footprint currently for our retail banking. So they're just asking what are our plans in Louisiana for expansion.

As we said earlier, we've been expanding market by market with the idea of densifying those markets rather than throwing a single branch. And Louisiana, New Orleans up in the suburbs of that is one of the areas we're looking at as well as other places in Louisiana. And so the team is working on that over the next few years. It is not on the current planning cycle but I'm sure will be.

Okay. Brian, this next question, I'm going to turn to Ross. When will customer service -- I'm sorry, the phone number, there seems to be some confusion about the phone number that would allow some of our attendees to get a higher level of service. So Ross, if you could just remind us what the phone numbers are.

Yes. As Brian noted, the rules of meeting conduct have 2 ways that participants can talk to Bank of America on personal, customer-related matters. One is to dial 800-432-1000 or go to bankofamerica.com.customer-service\contactus. And both of those are noted in the rules of meeting conduct.

Thank you, Ross. So the next one, Brian, is the question, when will customer service representatives be able to text customers a number to verify their identity instead of relying upon customers to provide personal information to verify their identity?

Yes, I'd have to check with the team to get the specific question about a live customer agent on the phone doing it. But we have a pattern where we have people set notifications and other things to ensure that more secured an account. We have 40 million clients enrolled in those types of alerts and notifications. Just in the month of March, we sent 800 million notifications out. So we can get back to our shareholders exactly the specifics of that particular question for live agent to be able to do it.

Okay. Thank you. Brian, the next question was a question that we recently responded to publicly at earnings. But the question is, in terms of revenue and profit, what is the impact of Ukraine-Russia war on Bank of America? Did Bank of America offer any loans to Russian companies or banks?

As we said at earnings, we have loans to a handful of companies that are not in Russia, but are Russian-based companies borrowing in London and other places that were investment-grade companies, big commodities types companies, and we're working through those 8 or 9 loans for $700 million or less exposure. We have 1 counterparty left for a very minor trade to clean up and then that's what we have in Russia. And we started in 2013 to '14, I think it was, after the Crimea invasion to downsize our operations that dropped off our top 20 country disclosure and that's part of responsible growth and has been there since.

Okay. Brian, I'm going to turn to two questions that are sort of similar. In 2021, Bank of America executives encouraged people to attend a racial equity 21-day challenge. Some of the topics included critical race theory concepts like intersectionality, white privilege, white fragility and systemic racism. White employees were urged, for example, to cede power to people of color and recognize that they were living with the benefits of white skin privilege. Did CEO Moynihan approve of this training? Is Bank of America currently being sued over this?

I think what they're talking about is a program by United Way, which was a program that was supported by hundreds of companies to -- in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. It is not our training, and no one was required to take it.

Thank you. The same questioner wrote, Mollie Ball wrote in the secret bipartisan campaign that saved the 2020 election that big businesses, activist and political groups work to influence perceptions, change rules and laws and limit riots and protests. Did Bank of America or any of its major executives in any official capacity involve itself in this effort? And do the racial justice efforts currently promoted by Bank of America stem in any way from the election or from an effort to play cake activists?

I have no idea what exactly you're talking about in the question. But our efforts on an inclusive company inside our company and our efforts on creating opportunity in society go back literally hundreds of years. We are a product of our communities. And so our work on internal diversity and -- in our company has been -- is 40, 50 years old, at least or more, and our work on creating opportunity outside our company through our regularly lending capabilities, our supportive housing finance, our environmental commitments, the first one was 2004 or something like that, these are all things which go back a long time. So none of this had anything to do with the 2020 election.

Okay. Thank you, Brian. I have one last question here. Berkshire Hathaway holds a large percentage of your stock. How often do you hear from Warren Buffett? And what wisdom does he offer? As an aside, I appreciate how responsive your Investor Relations department is.

Well, I think that Mr. Buffett has been a very supportive shareholder and from time to time, we will -- I'll touch base with him. But he believes in our company and believes in what we do and has been extremely supportive, and you can see that in how he increased his position. And so we're appreciative of his ownership, and we also work with him on transactions, as you might expect, since he's an investor in other companies.

Thanks. I did get one other one, Brian. What books does Mr. Moynihan recommend for understanding the banking sector?

What books do I rec? I think that trying to read historical books on the banking system, it somewhat forgets that every day, it's a new challenge. So I think I would be less recommending of books that set out the things and more recommending of understanding all the major trends facing society because that's what's going to happen in banking next. I mean you can read books on banking regulation. You can read books on how these banks are created, including [indiscernible] book. But I would tell you that I wouldn't focus on reading historical accounts and across many decades unless you're interested in history. If you want to find out what the issues a bank like ours faces and other banks face, you need to be much more current, reading about what's going on in fintech and DeFi and the metaverse and then also what's going on in banking regulation today. So that's what I'd recommend. Thank you.

Okay, Brian. That ends the questions that we have received at this point.

Okay. And seeing there's no other questions, Lee, at this point, given there's no questions, this concludes today's meeting. On behalf of myself, Lionel Nowell and the rest of our Board of Directors and your management team, thank you for being a shareholder in our company, and thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing you next year. This now concludes the meeting, and thank you for joining.

This concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining.