Bank CEOs Advocate for Gay Rights Abroad

'Behind the Scenes'

by Maria Aspan
MAY 2, 2014 1:38pm ET
Banks have made major progress when it comes to promoting gay and lesbian equality and
diversity at home. Now their main problems are abroad.
For the biggest financial companies, the past year has tested their recent commitment to equal
rights everywhere that they do business. Countries including Russia, Uganda and Brunei have
recently passed harsh anti-gay laws, making homosexuality punishable by jail time and even
death.
Those laws are challenging the policies and the generally glowing reputations that big
multinational companies have established for promoting and protecting homosexual equality in
recent years. Financial companies including Visa (NYSE:V) and Citigroup (NYSE:C), for
example, recently drew scrutiny and some protests for sponsoring the Sochi Olympics and doing
other business in Russia while not explicitly condemning the country's anti-gay laws.
Top executives at some of those companies acknowledged the problems on Thursday, while
professing their ongoing commitment to gay rights.
"There's a lot of grey in the world. We have to be mindful of the rules and laws in the places
where we operate," Michael Corbat, the chief executive of Citigroup (NYSE:C), said during a
panel discussion at his company's downtown investment bank offices.
Corbat argued that companies such as Citigroup, which regularly touts its "global" presence and
operations in more than 100 countries, can advocate for change in those countries but can do
so more effectively in private than in public.
"You can't run from these places. You've got to work behind the scenes," he said, adding that
"behind the scenes, we will use all our resources to have the conversation" about why laws
criminalizing homosexuality are wrong.
He didn't provide many specifics about what exactly Citigroup is doing behind the scenes in
places like Russia to advocate for change to its anti-gay laws. The bank is cutting back on the
assets it has in that country after its invasion of Crimea, due to "ongoing political tensions in
Russia and the Ukraine," Citi said in a regulatory filing Friday.
MasterCard (MA) is another company that has seen its business buffeted by the international
political tensions surrounding Russia. But at the same panel discussion on Thursday, CEO Ajay
Banga agreed with Corbat's strategy in advocating for change to anti-gay laws there and
elsewhere abroad.
Big financial companies should "start from the logic of arguing for equality then you can start
tackling issues one by one," Banga said.
He and Corbat were speaking at the annual "Out on the Street" conference in New York, an
event devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality on Wall Street.