Detailed breakdown of top shareholdings in america’s largest banks and oil companies, by Christian Tym

The Occupy Revolt posited that America was controlled by the 1% rather than the people. But what is the extent of 1% control of America?

Let’s look at 1% ownership of the most powerful American corporations, which are some of the most powerful actors on a global scale. Who own these companies? When these companies advocate for war, or rob pension funds and destroy the economy, who are the people responsible?

Let’s include the three largest investment banks, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup. Let’s also include the three largest oil companies, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Phillips 66. The rankings are taken from the Fortune 500 list for 2014.¹

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The following corporations make up the top 12 owners of Citigroup, in descending order:

Vanguard, State Street, BlackRock, Fidelity Management, Wellington Management, Invesco, Northern Trust, Capital World, JP Morgan, Eagle Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates, and Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss LLC.

Vanguard, State Street, Fidelity Management, BlackRock, Capital World, Wellington Management, T. Rowe Price Associates, MFS, Northern Trust, JP Morgan Savings, Columbia Management, BlackRock Advisors (a separate division of BlackRock).

So these two overlap in their top 12 through Vanguard, State Street, BlackRock, Fidelity, Wellington Management, Capital World, Northern Trust, T. Rowe Price Associates, as well of course JP Morgan itself, as a top owner of Citigroup. This means that of their respective top 12 shareholders, 9 are exactly the same. What this means is that the difference between Citigroup and JP Morgan is purely superficial.

The third bank, BAC (Bank of America) has the usual suspects in its top 12:

Vanguard, State Street, BlackRock, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price Associates and Northern Trust. So we have 6 shareholders that feature across the top 12 owners of America’s three largest investment banks.

Furthermore, the 8^th largest shareholder in Bank of America is Citigroup and the 13^th largest shareholder is JP Morgan. In other words, behind the façade of competition Wall St is a single block of capital acting with a singular interest.

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Does this pattern extend to the other beneficiaries of the three greatest disasters of our times – Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Phillips 66 (formerly part of ConocoPhillips) – the top 3 oil majors in America?

Let’s start with Exxon Mobil, America’s largest oil company and its second largest corporation behind Walmart. Its top 12 owners in descending order are:

Vanguard, State Street, BlackRock, Northern Trust, Wellington, Berkshire Hathaway, State Farm Mutual Automobile, Fidelity Management, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Geode Capital Management, Norges Bank and Columbia Management.

This means that there are still 5 shareholders in the top 12 of every corporation considered so far: Vanguard, State Street, BlackRock, Northern Trust and Fidelity Management.

Moreover, the shareholder that would have been #6 across all 12, T. Rowe Price Associates, is in fact the 13^th largest shareholder in Exxon Mobil. The 16^th largest shareholder in Exxon Mobil is JP Morgan.

Columbia Management gets a dishonourable mention for its participation in the three greatest disasters of our time, as it has now featured in the top 12 shareholders of JP Morgan and Exxon Mobil.

Now we’ll do the same review of the top 12 owners of Chevron:

State Street, Vanguard, Chevron Employee Savings, BlackRock, Wellington Management, Fidelity, Capital World Investors, Northern Trust Investments, T. Rowe Price Associates, Norges Bank, State Farm Mutual Automobile, Franklin Advisers.

This leaves us with the same 5 that have been listed in every corporation so far: State Street, Vanguard, BlackRock, Northern Trust, Fidelity Management.

We also have Wellington Management, in the top 12 for Chevron, JP Morgan and Citigroup. Wellington along with T. Rowe Price Associates have been listed in the top 12 for 4 of the 5 corporations looked at.

Note that Chevron’s top 12 includes the supposedly ethical Pension Fund of Norway, with over 13 million shares held, despite Chevron’s slash-and-burn legal tactics to avoid paying compensation to Ecuadorians forced to suffer from its deliberate dumping of toxic waste into the Amazon.

And for Phillips 66, the 9^th biggest corporation in the USA:

Vanguard, State Street, BlackRock, Barrow Hanney Mewhinney & Strauss, T. Rowe Price Associates, Waddell & Reid Investment, Wellington Management, Berkshire Hathaway, Fidelity Management, Robeco, DE Shaw, and Northern Trust – also note that JP Morgan is #15.

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What does all this mean?

Across the biggest 3 banks and the biggest 3 oil companies in America, five shareholders features across the top 12 of each one:

Vanguard, State Street, BlackRock, Fidelity Management, Northern Trust.

T. Rowe Price Associates is in the top 12 for all companies except Exxon Mobil, for which it was #13. Wellington Management is in the top 12 for all except Bank of America.

Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss LLC is a top 12 shareholder for Phillips and Citigroup.

Clearly, it is America’s 1% (who are roughly a third of all shares) as well as the 2–5% (who own roughly another third of all shares) that are responsible for the three greatest disasters of our times. They are the ones who can stop these companies. They are the ones who prefer to keep cashing their cheques.

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Now to compare the 1% ownership of finance and oil to the media ownership situation. Remember that in Ecuador (as one example of what a people’s government’s regulation of media should look like), cross-ownership between media companies and other sectors of the economy is prohibited

Vanguard, MFS, Dodge & Cox, State Street, JP Morgan, Capital World, BlackRock, Capital Research, Viking Global, Fidelity Management, Wellington Management, T. Rowe Price Associates. The 14^th largest shareholder is Northern Trust.

In other words, Time Warner’s owners are four funds that are the top owners in each of the largest 3 oil companies and banks. Another is just outside the top 12. Its 5^th largest shareholder is the largest bank in America.

In whose interest do CNN and Time Magazine tell the news?

Fairpointe, T. Rowe Price Associates, Contrarius Investment, JHL Capital, Vanguard, BlackRock, Komitzer, Kahn Brothers, State Street, Boston Co Asset Management, Lord Abbett & Co, Wellington Management.

In other words, the New York Times Company is owned by 3 of the same shareholders that are in the top 12 for each of the 3 biggest banks and 3 biggest oil companies. Another 2 shareholders are in the top 12 for 5 of those 6 companies.

Is it any wonder then that The New York Times failed miserably as a check on power during the three greatest disasters of our times?

New York Times Company:

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=NYT

Time Warner:

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=TWX®ion=USA
Citigroup:
http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=C®ion=usa&culture=en-US&ownerCountry=USA

Bank of America:

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=BAC®ion=USA

JP Morgan:

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=JPM®ion=USA

Chevron:

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=CVX®ion=usa&culture=en-US&ownerCountry=USA

Exxon Mobil:

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=XOM®ion=usa&culture=en-US&ownerCountry=USA

Phillips 66:

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=PSX®ion=usa&culture=en-US&ownerCountry=USA

Keep in mind that share ownership is constantly in flux, and as such the exact shareholders in the top 12 of each company may have changed slightly by the time you view these links.