Hello, and welcome to the annual meeting of shareholders of KeyCorp. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, we will have a question-and-answer session. You may submit questions or comments at any time by clicking on the message icon. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Chris Gorman, Chairman and CEO of KeyCorp. The floor is yours.
Thank you, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The meeting is now in session. Welcome to the 2021 annual meeting of shareholders. I am Chris Gorman, Chairman and CEO of KeyCorp. We thank everyone for being with us today through our virtual meeting platform. With me today is Carrie Benedict, the Assistant Secretary of KeyCorp. Carrie will explain the meeting formalities before we proceed. After the meeting, we will hold a shareholder convocation. During the convocation, I will comment on the state and direction of your company. Shareholders may submit questions at any time during the meeting in the space provided in the virtual meeting platform. When submitting questions, shareholders should follow the rules and guidelines set forth in the rules of conduct available within the virtual meeting platform. Carrie, I turn the meeting over to you.
Thank you, Chris. The list of the corporation's shareholders as of the close of business on Friday, 19 March 2021, the record date set for today's meeting, is available for inspection during this meeting by completing the form to request access within the virtual meeting platform. A notice of this meeting was duly and properly mailed to shareholders, and a certificate to that effect will be filed with the meeting records. Your board of directors has authorized a representative of Computershare Investor Services, our transfer agent, to act as the inspector for the meeting. Computershare Investor Services is responsible for determining the number of shares represented at the meeting, confirming that we have a quorum, confirming the validity of all proxies, receiving and tabulating all votes cast, and reporting the voting results. The inspector's oath will be filed with the meeting records.
The inspector has reported that we have a quorum. This meeting has been duly convened to transact any business properly brought before it. The voting at this meeting will be done on the virtual meeting platform. Although voting is done primarily by proxy, if you wish to vote or change your vote during this meeting, please click on the link provided within the virtual meeting platform. Any shareholder who has already voted and does not want to change their vote need not take any further action. The order of business for today's meeting is: first, Chris will introduce the nominees for election as director, followed by four other proposals presented for vote by management. Second, we will address questions that have been submitted by shareholders related to the proposals. Third, we will vote on the proposals. Finally, we will announce the preliminary voting results.
After the formal meeting has concluded, Chris will host our shareholder convocation and present his views on KeyCorp and its business, and will answer general questions that have been submitted by shareholders concerning our strategy, our performance, and the financial services industry in general. At any time during the meeting or convocation, Chris or any person addressing the shareholders on behalf of Key may make forward-looking statements about Key's future performance. A notice regarding forward-looking statements appears within the virtual meeting platform. Please review the statement. I also call your attention to the rules of conduct set forth for this meeting. These are available to each shareholder within the virtual meeting platform. We ask that you please review and abide by those rules.
There will be a question-and-answer period during the meeting limited to the proposals being voted on today, and another question-and-answer period during the convocation for general questions regarding Key's strategy and performance. A representative from Key is reviewing questions that have been submitted and will read your question aloud at the appropriate time. To facilitate full and fair shareholder participation, we ask that you limit yourself to one question on the proposals being voted on today and one question during the convocation. You may submit questions within the virtual meeting platform by clicking on the dialog icon in the upper right corner of the meeting center screen. We ask that questions be brief. That concludes the meeting formalities.
Thank you, Carrie. The next order of business is to describe the proposals to be voted on in today's meeting. The first proposal concerns the election of directors to serve a one-year term expiring at the 2022 annual meeting of shareholders. The size of KeyCorp's board of directors is currently set at 13 members. The nominees for election are Sandy Cutler, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eaton Corporation plc. Sandy is our lead director. Bruce Broussard, President and Chief Executive Officer, Humana Inc. James Dallas, retired Senior Vice President of Quality and Operations, Medtronic Inc. Betsy Gile, retired Managing Director, Deutsche Bank AG. Ruth Ann Gillis, retired Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Exelon Corporation. Robin Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, JetBlue Airways Corporation. Carlton Highsmith, former President and Chief Executive Officer, The Specialized Packaging Group. Richard Hipple, former Executive Chairman, Materion Corporation.
Devina Rankin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Waste Management Inc. Barbara Snyder, President, Association of American Universities. Todd Vasos, Chief Executive Officer, Dollar General Corporation. David Wilson, retired Examiner in Charge at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Additionally, I am honored to stand for election as your board chairman. The board recommends a vote for each of the nominees. One of the long-standing strengths of Key has been the quality and dedication of the members of our board of directors. I would like to express my appreciation for the valuable service that our directors provide to Key and to you, our shareholders. I would also like to recognize and thank Gary Crosby and Kristen Manos, both of whom are retiring from the board concurrent with this annual meeting.
Gary and Kris have been outstanding directors, and we express our sincere gratitude for their leadership, insights, and service. The next proposal to be voted on is the ratification of the audit committee's appointment of Ernst & Young as Key's independent auditor for 2021. Alex Schmidt, a representative of Ernst & Young, is present today and will be available to answer questions submitted through the virtual meeting platform. The board of directors recommends that the shareholders vote for this proposal. The next proposal is an advisory vote on KeyCorp's executive compensation program. The board of directors has placed this proposal before the shareholders as required by the Dodd-Frank Act and applicable securities laws. The board is of the opinion that KeyCorp's executive compensation programs provide appropriate incentives to its executive officers and at the same time do not encourage its executive officers to take unnecessary risks.
For those reasons, the board recommends that the shareholders vote for the proposal. The next proposal before the shareholders is a vote to approve the KeyCorp Second Amended and Restated Discounted Stock Purchase Plan. A copy of the plan was included as Appendix A to the proxy statement. The purpose of this amendment is to increase the number of KeyCorp common shares available to be purchased by Key employees under the plan by four million shares. The plan is designed to provide employees of KeyCorp and its subsidiaries an opportunity to purchase KeyCorp common shares through payroll deductions at a 10% discount to the market. The board believes the discounted stock purchase program aligns employee and shareholder interests by providing an incentive to a broad base of eligible employees to increase their ownership of KeyCorp common shares. For that reason, the board recommends that shareholders vote for the proposal.
The final proposal before the shareholders is a vote to approve an amended KeyCorp's Third Amended and Restated Regulations to change the threshold to call a special meeting from 25% to 15%. While the board believes that 25% has been a reasonable and meaningful threshold that appropriately balances the shareholders' ability to call a special meeting with not forcing KeyCorp to expend significant time and money on a special meeting that only a small minority of shareholders want, the board recognizes the support that a shareholder proposal received in 2018 and in 2020, which aimed to reduce the threshold to 10%. The board strives to be responsible to shareholder feedback and thus has determined it is in the best interest of KeyCorp and the shareholders to amend the special meeting threshold from 25% to 15%.
The board has determined that 15% is an appropriate threshold that balances the feedback from shareholders supporting a threshold lower than 25% while not lowering the threshold to an unreasonably low level. For those reasons, the board recommends that the shareholders vote for the proposal. We will now address any questions that have been submitted on the proposals being presented today. We have not received any questions regarding the proposals. If you are voting during the meeting through the virtual meeting platform, please make sure you have completed your voting at this time. The voting is now closed. Because we permit voting by telephone, by proxy cards, over the internet, and on the virtual meeting platform, we will take additional time to finalize the tabulation. The final tabulation will be filed with the SEC on a Form 8-K within four days of this meeting.
However, we can announce preliminary voting results. First, the Inspector has informed me that each of the nominees identified in the proxy statement has been elected to the board of directors by at least 84% of the votes cast. Second, the shareholders have ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent auditor for 2021. The issue received a favorable vote of 86% of the votes cast. Third, 93% of the votes cast were to provide advisory approval of the company's Executive Compensation Program. Fourth, the shareholders have approved the KeyCorp Second Amended and Restated Discounted Stock Purchase Plan. The plan received a favorable vote of 99% of the votes cast. Lastly, the shareholders have approved the management proposal to amend KeyCorp's Regulations to change the threshold to call a special shareholder meeting from 25% to 15%.
The proposal received a favorable vote of 99% of the votes cast. There being no other business, this meeting is adjourned. We will now begin the shareholder convocation, after which we will answer questions that have been submitted. So as we pivot to the convocation, first, I want to thank each and every one of you for your participation today and your commitment to Key. We appreciate your support and ownership of our company. The events of 2020 were unprecedented, and our dedication and commitment to you and all of our stakeholders never wavered. I'd like to spend some time today talking about how we are executing what I call the dual mandate: responding to the pandemic while continuing to position Key for both growth and success.
Throughout the pandemic, we have taken countless steps to ensure that our clients, our colleagues, and our communities are both safe and well served. We were there for our clients from individuals to businesses when they needed us most. A great example of this was our work as part of the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, where we delivered for our clients and achieved record performance for our company. As a result of a highly coordinated team effort, we processed 66,000 applications on behalf of our clients, providing nearly $11 billion in critical funding. Importantly, 24% of those loans supported businesses in low and moderate-income communities. We also supported our teammates during the pandemic. We implemented premium pay and dozens of safety measures for 7,000 frontline teammates who served our clients throughout the pandemic. Our business resiliency efforts enabled 10,000 colleagues to work productively from home.
We also invested $34 million in COVID-related support for our teammates. At the same time, we remained true to our purpose of helping our communities thrive. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have committed $18 million to programs designed to support our most vulnerable citizens. And in true Key tradition, our teammates have stepped up as well, donating more than 2 million in COVID relief and contributed their most precious resource, their time, as we volunteered over 50,000 hours across our footprint. Perhaps the greatest testament to our commitment to communities is that Key received its 10th consecutive Outstanding rating from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for reaching the highest standards of the Community Reinvestment Act. The Community Reinvestment Act requires banks to meet the credit needs of low and moderate-income communities across America, and Key is one of the only U.S.
banks to be rated Outstanding by the OCC for 10 consecutive review periods. I wanted to comment on our financial performance in 2020. We delivered an all-time high revenue of $6.7 billion in 2020. That's up 5% from 2019. We also delivered record household growth, adding more net new consumer households than we ever have. And this momentum has continued into 2021, with the first quarter setting another record with over 25,000 net new households. We have strong engines in our consumer business, most notably our mortgage business, which also reported a record year with $8 billion in originations. We also set records in several fee-based businesses, including investment banking, cards and payments, and consumer mortgage. Foundational to our growth is a relentless focus on maintaining strong risk practices and remaining disciplined in the way we manage our capital.
The investments that we continue to make in digital capabilities are critical to the success.