Over the past few years a movement among shareholders and activist groups has formed to push companies to publicly reveal their political contributions. While corporations are banned from giving directly to candidates for federal office some states have not banned direct corporate contributions and other groups, like nonprofits, 527s, trade associations, and other political groups, also receive corporate money. The Financial Times reports that five companies are jumping on this transparency bandwagon:

Five large US companies, including American Express and Xerox, will bow to shareholder pressure on Thursday and agree to disclose all their political spending.

Shareholder activists are expected plan to force resolutions on some New England companies to disclose all information related to campaign contributions, according to the Boston Globe. The resolutions will target CVS Corp., Staples Inc., and Marsh & McLennan Cos. to publicly disclose their political contributions. A similar campaign run last year by shareholders caused the New Jersey based Shering-Plough Corp. to disclose all political contributions on their website.