The World Bank Bonds Boycott has been urging the fund to consider adopting this policy ever since the TIAA Investment Profile 2002 released in June 2003 confirmed TIAA-CREF had sold all their World Bank Bonds. At the time, TIAA-CREF indicated it had sold its bonds for financial reasons.

"We applaud TIAA-CREF for its decision to sell its World Bank bonds both because it is a financially sound decision to make, and because it is a socially responsible move," said Dennis Brutus, the poet and renowned South African anti-Apartheid activist who is at the TIAA-CREF meeting today in New York. "But we are here today to urge TIAA-CREF to take the next step by adopting a policy against investing in bonds issued by the World Bank, and instead invest in bonds that promote social good."

The World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign today joined a coalition of concerned shareholders and activists in a protest outside TIAA-CREF's Annual meetings, which are being held at their corporate headquarters in New York. As demonstrators picketed outside TIAA-CREF headquarters with banners, placards, holiday attire, and live music, shareholders spoke out inside the CREF annual shareholders' meeting.

The World Bank Bonds Boycott urges pension funds and institutional investors to consider both financial and social risk factors associated with investing in World Bank bonds. One financial risk factor to consider is that a growing number of World Bank borrowers have defaulted or are considering default on payments to the institution. The campaign has produced an analysis of risk factors associated with holding World Bank bonds, which is available at http://econjustice.net/wbbb/tools/WBB_Risk_Assessment.pdf. In addition to TIAA-CREF, the campaign will also target other private and public pension systems around the U.S. to sell their World Bank bonds or at least adopt a policy against future investment.

The World Bank raises a majority of its funds by selling bonds. Launched by civil society organizations from more than 35 countries in 2000, the World Bank Bonds Boycott campaign has organized more than 100 institutional investors to commit not to buy World Bank bonds, including nine U.S. cities, dozens of religious institutions and labor unions, and ten investment funds in the US with assets under management of more than $16 billion. The boycott calls on the World Bank to cancel its debt claims against impoverished countries, stop promoting privatization and macroeconomic austerity programs, and stop funding oil, gas, mining and dam projects.