West Virginia bars TD, HSBC, Citi, Northern Trust from banking contracts over ESG policies
State Treasurer Riley Moore says banks 'boycott' fossil fuels industry
West Virginia’s treasurer announced that he is restricting four financial services firms from providing state banking services because he says they “boycott” the fossil fuels industry.
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Citigroup Inc., Toronto-Dominion Bank, Northern Trust Corp., and HSBC Holdings PLC have been added to a list of companies that State Treasurer Riley Moore’s office determined engage in such a boycott based on a review of each institution’s environmental, social and governance policies and public statements. The financial firms will now be ineligible to provide banking services to the state, Moore’s office said in a press release on Monday.
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“We cannot allow institutions that seek to destroy our state’s critical energy industries and the economic activity they generate to also profit from handling the very taxpayer dollars they seek to diminish,” Moore, a Republican, said in the statement.
As part of a 2022 GOP law, the state treasurer develops a list of financial institutions that have “publicly stated they will refuse, terminate or limit doing business with coal, oil or natural gas companies without a reasonable business purpose,” according to the statement. There are now nine financial services companies on the state’s list, including BlackRock Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo & Co.
Joanne Zalatoris, a spokesperson for Northern Trust, said in a statement that the company does not boycott the industry. The company has US$52 billion in investment exposure to companies in the traditional energy sector and companies with commercial activities relevant to fossil fuel production and supply, according to Northern Trust’s statement.
A spokesperson for Citigroup declined to comment. A report by groups including the Rainforest Action Network found that Citigroup was one of the largest financiers of fossil fuels globally between 2016 and 2022.
Representatives for the other two newly added banks did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Moore is running for West Virginia’s second congressional district in the House of Representatives. His campaign website says he has “stopped the woke corporate agenda.”
Bloomberg.com
