Hello, and welcome to the Valley National Bancorp's 2020 annual shareholders meeting. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ira Robbins, Chairman of the Board of Directors and President, and CEO of Valley.
Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. On behalf of the entire board, our officers, our associates, I would like to thank you for attending our annual meeting of shareholders. If you've attended a Valley annual shareholder meeting in the past, you'll notice that today's meeting is a little different. Today, we are all living in a unique moment in time. Like all of you, we are dealing with a health issue of enormous scale as we navigate the uncharted waters of the COVID-19 pandemic. When we sent our proxy statement to the press on March 11th, we did plan for a physical shareholder meeting. By March 19th, when we mailed our proxy statement, we were starting to become concerned about the well-being of our shareholders, directors, officers, and associates if we held our usual in-person annual meeting.
On March 25th, the Governor of New Jersey issued another of his daily executive orders responding to the pandemic, which made it impossible to hold an in-person meeting. We felt it was not appropriate or even possible to gather together to celebrate our accomplishments in 2019. Saying hello to our shareholders and answering their questions face-to-face has long been a part of Valley's history. We expect to continue that tradition in the future. Today's meeting marks our first ever virtual annual shareholders meeting. I'm speaking to you by leveraging auto-conferencing technology. Our directors and named executive officers, as well as our accountants from KPMG, are joining us remotely today and may participate via a conference line. I'm confident many of our officers and associates are listening to the annual meeting as well.
As is custom, we will conduct the formal business portion of our meeting first and answer questions not related to the formal business of the meeting at the end. Though we may not be able to answer every question, we will do our best to provide a response to as many as possible in the limited time we do have. We hope many of you listening to our earnings call yesterday and had your questions answered then. Shareholders may ask questions when they are logged in by following the instructions on their screen. Before submitting questions, we ask you to carefully review our rules of conduct. We will review the questions we receive to see if any relate specifically to the matters to be voted on and seek to answer those before voting commences. Today's agenda is displayed on a slide located on the right side of your screen.
You also have available below the agenda on your screen access to our proxy statement and annual report to shareholders. At today's meeting, I will briefly introduce the members of our board of directors and our senior executive officers. After that, I will conduct the formal portion of our annual meeting. After the formal meeting, I will provide a brief update on our business and key strategic initiatives. I assume most of that all listened to our earnings call yesterday and heard much of what has occurred. I will attempt to avoid repeating the information from that call. At the conclusion of my presentation, we will open the floor for shareholder questions. I would now like to introduce our board of directors, all of whom are attending today's meeting via conference line. Biographic information for each director is in the proxy statement, so I will not repeat that.
In addition to myself, our directors up for election today are our Independent Lead Director, Andrew Abramson. Peter Baum, the Chair of our Trust Committee. Eric Edelstein, the Chair of our Audit Committee. Graham Jones, who serves on our Board Risk Committee and our Trust Committee. Marc Lenner, the Chair of our Nominating Committee. Kevin Lynch, who joined us in our merger with Oritani, where he served as the Chairman, President, and CEO. Peter Maio, who joined us in January. Peter has a terrific background in bank technology, which we welcome. Suresh Sani, who is Chair of our Compensation Committee. Lisa Schultz, who joined us last year after retiring from a long and distinguished career advising banks on capital markets, equity, and fixed income. Jennifer Steans, who joined us in 2018 in our merger with USAmeriBancorp, where she served as the Chair.
Jeffrey Wilks, who is the Chair of our Investment Committee and a former banker himself. While he is not standing for re-election today, I would like to thank our Director, Mike LaRusso, for his service on the board. We appreciated his insight and advice. I would also be remiss if I did not add our thanks to our former CEO and Chairman, Gerry Lipkin, who retired from our board this past December. Our named executive officers are also attending this meeting today via conference line. Our named executive officers on the line include Tom Iadanza, who is our Chief Banking Officer. Michael Hagedorn, who joined us this last year as our Chief Financial Officer. Bob Bardusch, who is our Chief Operating Officer and has built our technology group. Ron Janis, who is our General Counsel and our Corporate Secretary and the Secretary of today's meeting.
While he is not on the conference line with us, I would like to thank our Former Chief Financial Officer, Alan Eskow, who retired from that position last August and continues to serve as a Senior Advisor and plays an important role at Valley. We also have on the conference line representatives from KPMG, our independent registered public accounting firm, including our new engagement partner, Christy Shea. With that, I'll call our 2020 annual shareholder meeting to order.
I will now conduct the formal portion of today's meeting. A notice of meeting and proxy statement, together with our 2019 annual report, was mailed or made available to all shareholders of record as of March 11th, 2020. This material was updated on March 25th with a press release and a filing on the SEC EDGAR system announcing the change to a virtual meeting and providing the web address for the virtual meeting.
Subsequently, all shareholders received notice of the change. I ask that the affidavit of a mailing be annexed to the minutes of this meeting. I am pleased to announce that the inspectors of election have informed me that there are present by proxy a sufficient number of shares of common stock of the company to constitute a quorum. At this time, any shareholders that are logged in who have not voted already or wish to change their vote may do so now by clicking on the Vote Here button on your screen. While we allow time for shareholders who haven't already done so to complete their voting, I'd like to remind you that some of the statements made at this meeting may be considered forward-looking. The company cautions investors that results of future operations may differ from those anticipated.
We urge you to review the cautionary statements and other information contained in the company's filings with the SEC, including our 2019 annual report on Form 10-K and our April 30, first quarter earnings press release. These documents identify certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement made during this meeting. I will now report the preliminary results of the voting as reported to me by the inspectors of the election. There are five proposals presented at this meeting, all of which were described in detail in the proxy statement furnished to the shareholders. Proposal 1, election of directors. The first item of business is the election of directors. The nominees were introduced earlier in this meeting. I'm pleased to report that each of the directors standing for election today at today's annual meeting received an overwhelming majority vote.
Consequently, these nominees have been reelected. Proposal 2, ratification of the appointment of independent registered public accountants. Proposal Number 2 relates to the ratification of appointment of KPMG to serve as the independent registered public accountants for the company for 2020. The number of shares voted in favor of the proposal is an overwhelming majority. Consequently, the proposal has been approved. Proposal 3, advisory vote on executive compensation. The third item of business relates to the advisory vote on the company's executive compensation. More than 90% of the shares voting at this meeting on the proposal were voted in favor of this proposal. Consequently, the proposal is approved. Proposal 4, amendment to the certificate of incorporation. The fourth proposal asks our shareholders to approve an amendment to the company's certificate of incorporation to increase by 200 million shares the number of authorized shares of the common stock of the company.
More than 50% of the shares voted on this proposal were voted in favor of the amendment. Consequently, the amendment has received the approval of shareholders. Proposal 5, a shareholder proposal to make the shareholder right to call a special meeting more accessible. The fifth and final proposal is a shareholder proposal that seeks an amendment to our bylaws to reduce to 10% the number of shares required to call a special meeting of shareholders. The shareholder proposal is being presented today by Jesse Alba. Before the voting is closed, I would like to give Mr. Alba an opportunity to present the proposal. Mr. Alba will have three minutes to present the proposal. Mr. Alba is on the phone now. Mr. Alba, we ask you to present your proposal within the allotted time. Thank you.
Thank you, and good morning. Proposal 5, make shareholder right to call special meeting more accessible, sponsored by Ken Steiner. Shareholders ask our Board to take steps necessary to amend our bylaws and each appropriate governing document to give the owners of a combined 10% of our outstanding common stock the power to call a special shareholder meeting. Special meetings allow shareholders to vote on important matters, such as electing new directors that can arise between annual meetings. In an earlier annual meeting proxy, our directors failed to tell us that currently shareholders have to go to court if 10% of our shares want to call a special meeting. This proposal does not call for a one-year holding period for the percent of shares that are currently needed to be marshaled to call a special meeting.
Currently, management has an impossible form of a right to call a special meeting. Since any shares held for less than one year are now disqualified, it could be necessary to contact the owners of a formidable 50% of all the company stock in existence to simply meet the 25% requirement. Even if shareholders had a 25% stock ownership threshold for shareholders to call a special meeting without the current disqualifier for all shares not held continuously for one year, the 25% stock ownership threshold could be unreachable due to time constraints and the detailed technical requirements that can trip up half of shareholders who want a special shareholder meeting.
A 25% stock ownership threshold to call a special meeting can really be a 50% stock ownership threshold to call a special meeting for all practical purposes if we did not have the current one year of stock ownership disqualifier. Under the current double barrel restrictions of a one-year stock holding period and the bureaucratic pitfalls of the dense bylaw text, it may be necessary to contact 75% of all shares in existence for shareholders to call for a special meeting. A more realistic stock ownership threshold of 10% can give shareholders more influence in board refreshment. Valley National seems to need board refreshment. The following directors had excessive tenure, which can erode their independence. Andrew Abramson, 26 years. Graham Jones, 23 years.
Eric Edelstein, 17 years, and Mr. Jeffrey Wilks was rejected by 21% of shares in 2019, with 10 times as many negative votes as some of his peers on the board. Lead director Andrew Abramson had long tenure of 26 years. Long tenure can impair the independence of a director, no matter how well qualified. Independence is a priceless attribute in a lead director. The stock price went from $9 to $8 in five years of a mostly robust market. This proposal topic won 70% support at Edwards Lifesciences and SunEdison. This proposal topic also won 78% support at a Sprint annual meeting with 1.7 billion yes votes. Nuance Communications shareholders gave 94% support to a shareholder proposal calling for 10% of shareholders to call a special meeting. Please vote yes. Make shareholder right to call special meeting more accessible, Proposal 5. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Alba. At this point, the voting is closed. I will pause briefly to receive any update from the inspectors. I'm now able to report that more than 70% of the shares voted this meeting on the shareholder proposal were voted against the proposal. Consequently, the shareholder proposal is not approved by our shareholders. The results I have announced are preliminary. The final tabulation of these votes will appear in our Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission before next Tuesday. This concludes the formal portion of our 2020 annual shareholders meeting. I'd like to adjourn the meeting. Thank you. Now for a quick presentation. First, I want to say a few words about our response to the coronavirus pandemic and the actions we've taken to support our associates, customers, and the communities we serve.
I've been with Valley long enough to witness us weather some difficult economic environments, including several recessionary periods. Today, we face another incredible challenge as the new coronavirus impacting families physically, emotionally, and financially. It's unprecedented for most of us, and while the crisis has its own unique challenges, I can assure you that we will remain true to who we are and do everything we can to serve our customers and support our communities in these difficult times. Our communities are feeling the hard financial crunch from the coronavirus outbreak, and while the crisis has certainly changed the way we do business, at least for the short term, I can assure you what won't change is our commitment to serving our business customers when they need us most. We're navigating this global health challenge in a way by staying true to our values, our missions, and our principles.
If there was ever a time for Valley to demonstrate our connectedness to our communities, the integral role we play in the economic viability of our communities, and our worth as an institution to our fellow Americans, this is now it. I've witnessed firsthand the unshakable resolve and unwavering commitment of our associates as they continue to find ways to continue to serve our customers. We are working around the clock to adapt our processes and procedures to provide a safe and reliable environment for all their banking needs. Our lenders have proactively reached out to borrowers as well, trying to determine how we can lessen the impact of the economic hardship they're facing right now.
To date, we have already donated over $200,000 to local food banks throughout our footprint, such as the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, the Food Bank For New York City, and Feeding Tampa Bay, and the Montgomery Area Food Bank, among others. We've earmarked another $1.2 million for community support in other areas that align with our corporate social responsibility pillars. In fact, we launched a Community Recovery CD, which not only provides people the security of a savings product with an interest rate that exceeds the industry average, but more importantly, will result in our contribution to our communities of $5 for every $1,000 of the CD. Our goal with the Community Recovery CD is to raise $2.5 million to support local needs, in addition to the $200,000 we have already committed.
I believe this is an opportunity for us to be there for our customers when they need us most. While I can't predict how this will play out or when we will be able to get back to business as usual, I strongly believe that our company will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever before. I would now like to turn the call over to our CFO, Michael Hagedorn. This is his first annual meeting, and I would like him to say a few words.
Thanks, Ira. We achieved excellent results in 2019 and 2020 before the pandemic struck us and all of America. A major highlight of 2019 was our December acquisition of Oritani Bank. This New Jersey-based bank had approximately $4.3 billion in assets, $3.4 billion in net loans, and $2.9 billion in deposits. The company faced a big challenge to integrate this, our largest acquisition to date. We're pleased that our associates met that challenge and accomplished an admirable and smooth result. Our annual report highlights the statistics and documents our accomplishments in 2019. I will not repeat that information here. However, I will say that all of our 2019 accomplishments were a direct result of the hard work and dedication of our associates.
I am fortunate to work with some of the most talented and committed professionals in our industry, and we're committed to making substantial investments in our people and in technology. Our goal is to make their jobs more efficient so that we can not only deliver on a better customer experience, but a better employee experience as well. Our inclusive work environment embraces diverse perspectives and backgrounds. This supports our strategy of attracting and retaining talented and dedicated individuals. Our communities are at the heart of what we do. We're passionate about taking part in our communities by addressing local issues and making a positive and sustainable economic impact. It's important to us to play an essential role in creating stronger communities, and we've been recognized for our contributions.
As a result of these efforts, Valley received an Outstanding Community Reinvestment Act rating from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. We exceeded the terms of the CRA exam, and I'm proud to say this distinction was received by less than 10% of financial institutions last year. Honoring our role and impact on society as a responsible corporate citizen, we continue to incorporate environmental, social, and governance considerations in all aspects of our business. From lending, investments, policies, and principles to corporate philanthropy and sustainability, these ESG factors support our long-term strategy, strengthen our risk management framework, and add sustainable value to our organization. We feel that as a local bank, our role is bigger than just growing business opportunities. We're only as strong as the communities we serve, which is why we strive to be a leader in our community's success.
Ira, I'll turn the call back to you.
Thanks, Mike. I'll open the floor for questions. There's a few questions on here relating to the dividend and Valley's commitment to maintain it. I'll speak, generally, there is a strong ownership that is retail within Valley, as well as some of the institutional ownerships that does have a significant interest in what our dividend is. During the stressed time period, we have stressed our ability and our capital to continue to pay dividends. While under certain scenarios, the payout ratio increases, we consistently cover the dividend. We expect to continue to pay the dividend, obviously, if we end up in a severe prolonged recession, we believe that anything is possible, not just for Valley, but for the entire industry as well.
Another question relates to our strategic plans for Florida, whether we have the ability to sell it, and how we integrate that in with New York and New Jersey. I think like any part of our franchise, we have the ability to sell any piece of it. That said, I think we entered the Florida market as we thought it would be beneficiary to the entire organization. Results have proven themselves to that be significantly true. Right now, the Florida franchise is definitely an integral piece of the entire Valley Bank, and we'd like to continue to move that forward. We entered Florida based on three different individual M&A transactions. We believe right now that our footprint reflects the demographics and MSA that we really intend to be in. Most of the growth in Florida we think can be done from an organic perspective.
It's integrated in pretty uniformly with our New York and New Jersey footprint. We have one credit policy throughout the entire organization, and we operate the organization from an infrastructure perspective on one entire platform. Although there's branches in a multitude of locations, employees in a multitude of locations, it is one core infrastructure across the entire bank. Another question relates to what percent of our employees are working remotely? Today, our back office, not including retail, we have about 93% of our employees working remotely. I'd like to thank Bob Bardusch and the entire executive management team for being extremely proactive in making sure that our associates' safety was top of mind as we went forth and put these contingency plans in place from the pandemic perspective. Looks like one last question relating to the number of attendees on today's call.
Looks we have about a little over 80 total, evenly split between shareholders and non-shareholders listening in, which is roughly on par from what we would have originally received had this been an in-person meeting. With that, I don't see any other questions. I'd like to thank everyone for attending our annual meeting of shareholders, and I hope to see you in person next year. Thank you.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.