West Virginia bans four more financial institutions over ESG policies

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West Virginia is banning four more banks from state contracts over their ESG policies and “boycotts” of fossil fuel companies.

Riley Moore, the West Virginia state treasurer, made the announcement on Monday. The firms, which include Citibank, TD Bank, Northern Trust, and HSBC Holdings, had all been notified in February that their state contracts were at risk.

The state had already placed five firms on its restricted institutions list — BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. The first five firms on the list have lost access to some $18 billion in annual inflows and outflows.

“That’s certainly, I think, a tremendous loss for them,” Moore told the Washington Examiner during a Monday phone call after the latest four firms were added. “We really kicked off this coalition effort around this, so they are going to be other states looking at what we have done. And I would not be surprised in the future if you did see some of these institutions end up on other lists.”

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