By Ross Kerber

Feb 25 (Reuters) - This is the weekly Reuters Sustainable Finance Newsletter, which you can sign up for here .

Top fund firms have been working hard to "devolve" their proxy voting powers to their clients, which could insulate the companies from the political criticism they have heard from many sides.

You can read the latest on their efforts in this week's main story, below. You'll also find links to our coverage of matters like privacy questions for Amazon in Italy and technical issues for Air India.

Please follow me on LinkedIn and/or Bluesky. You can reach me via ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com.

Fund firms build out voting platforms

Top fund managers dodged some pressure in December when they were not named for new scrutiny in an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump. One reason could be they have already appeased some critics by "devolving" decisions over proxy voting by their giant index funds.

Those votes, cast at corporate annual meetings on hot-button topics like climate change or workforce diversity, can thrust fund managers into culture war battles.

Vanguard's solution has been to build up its "Investor Choice" program. On Wednesday it said it is adding 17 new funds to its program, making it available to a total of 22 million eligible investors across $3.6 trillion of eligible assets -- more than a quarter of the closely-held Pennsylvania firm's total of $12 trillion under management.

The program has seen a lot of interest from individual investors and retirement-plan sponsors, said John Galloway, Vanguard Head of Investor Engagement. State 529 educational-savings plan sponsors also like it as a way to "make an intentional decision" with their votes, he told me in an interview.

BlackRock recently updated figures for its own Voting Choice program, showing that out of $3.76 trillion in index equity assets eligible for the program, holders of $885 billion were exercising the choice as of Dec. 31.

Neither company's program allows investors to vote directly on ballot items like CEO pay or director elections at specified companies. Rather they allow investors to pick among a range of voting approaches including ones that tend to support management positions, or to favor climate concerns.

It's hard to see much downside to either program, except maybe forcing company executives to work harder to reach investors . Both programs give fund customers more say over how their money talks, and give fund executives an answer to those who say they wield too much clout.

Company news

Colgate-Palmolive CL.N defended its board selection criteria, joining a short list of other companies standing by their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in public.

A unit of Amazon AMZN.O was ordered by Italy's privacy watchdog to stop using the personal information of some 1,800 warehouse employees.

Widespread recalls of baby formula could hit sales by up to 70 million euros ($82.4 million) in the first quarter, said French food giant Danone.DANO.PA

On my radar

A bid by ExxonMobil XOM.N and Suncor Energy SU.TO to scuttle a lawsuit seeking to hold them liable for climate change will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Engine oil and fuel leaks and other technical incidents affecting Air India hit a 14-month high in January, straining the carrier's revamp ambitions.

Japan's top business lobby put off a meeting with activist Elliott Investment Management, talks that could have aired out their differences as regulators push corporate-governance reforms.

(Reporting by Ross Kerber; Editing by David Gregorio)

((ross.kerber@thomsonreuters.com; (617) 412 0093;))