Bank of America Corp. is loosening restrictions on lending to the firearms and energy industries amid pressure from anti-ESG politicians in Texas and Florida.
The bank backed off its ban on lending to companies that make assault-style guns used for non-military purposes. Rather, the firm will make such decisions on a case-by-case basis with senior risk officers, according to its latest environmental and social risk policy framework. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank also made similar changes to its energy lending policies — it no longer has a blanket ban on financing for Arctic drilling.
“Certain client relationships or transactions that carry heightened risks go through a due diligence process that involves senior level risk review,” a Bank of America spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We recently detailed that in our updated risk policy framework.”
Republican-led states are targeting financial institutions for adopting environmental, social and governance policies that limit business with the firearms or fossil fuels industries. Texas restricts government work with companies that “discriminate” against firearms entities or “boycott” oil and gas companies. A new Florida law requires banks to attest that they don’t — in the words of the state’s chief financial officer — “politically discriminate.” The pullback in Bank of America’s gun policy exemplifies how the GOP is winning the anti-ESG fight.
The pressure campaign has hurt the public finance business of banks who have such approaches. Bank of America’s updated policy was driven in part by legislation, including a Florida law targeting firms that work as depositories for state and local governments, according to a person familiar with bank officials’ thinking on the matter. In order to serve as a depository to Florida municipalities, banks can’t have any blanket prohibitions against lending to any industry, the person said.
If a financial institution is found not to comply with that law, they could be disqualified as an approved bank or face civil fines or lawsuits by Florida’s attorney general, according to a report by law firm Mintz.
— Amanda Albright in Bank of America Backtracks on Lending Ban to Some Gunmakers
22 Responses
The worst bank ever besides the equally crooked Well Fargo.
This says it all :
“The bank backed off its ban on lending to companies that make assault-style guns used for non-military purposes. Rather, the firm will make such decisions on a case-by-case basis with senior risk officers, according to its latest environmental and social risk policy framework.”
“Case-by-case”, they aren’t changing shit…
What ESG an abbreviation for?
It stands for environmental, social, and governance. It’s a way to impose Progressive ideology on corporations, who in turn impose that ideology on their customers. It turns out that some people aren’t very fond of it. Look into it. It’s very devious.
environmental, social and governance
Note the context of the third paragraph above for the general idea (politically discriminate).
It’s funny to hear people sound the alarm bell about social credit scores in China, and how that could come here. It’s already here and in effect, complete with cancel culture if you don’t play along. It isn’t quite as entrenched…yet.
*Fourth paragraph
Dan, edit function when? I’m not a first draft kind of guy.
Environmental, Social and Governance
ESG stands for “Environmental, Social and Governance.” ESG can be described as a set of practices (policies, procedures, metrics, etc.) that organizations implement to limit negative impact or enhance positive impact on the environment, society, and governance bodies. In a nutshell Wokeism.
It’s an abbreviation for USE A SEARCH ENGINE!
Louisiana has 2 senate bills awaiting the governor’s signature that prevents banks in Louisiana from discriminating against gun and ammo manufactures and another bill that prevents Louisiana from becoming a sanctuary state/city etc
Plus another bill already signed that will impose fines and jail time on illegals found in Louisiana.
Good news! Red states are catching on. FL leadership under DeSantis is a good example of how Rs should use their power to govern, instead of the old R way of, “well now that we’re in power, we need to be hands off because hands on means big government.”
Dude, it is high time Red stated caught on. Louisiana now has a governor with a backbone. Governor Landry said he would sign CC bills and he called for an extraordinary session that saw all positive CC bills signed by the Governor. Governor Landry is what the state has needed for a long time and so far he has been true to his word. A lot of other positive legislation is crossing his desk with his signature relative to education and crime to name a few.
Red States. Governor Landry has not hesitated, to date, to veto trash bills too.
It’s been mostly funny and kinda scary to watch all these corporations and universities ditch the ESG and DEI nonsense they were so eager to jump on. Funny because it’s always funny when stupid hurts and scary because these institutions should be staffed by intelligent, capable, reasonable and experienced people that should have known better but they apparently didn’t.
That fact should really make people with sizable stakes in these institutions very nervous.
Unfortunately many of the people trusted to lead define intelligence in their own terms and will always remain more intelligent than you. Such individuals and their cohorts have never grown out of if only I would be king. If truly as intelligent as thinking themselves to be heaven on earth would have been known long ago.
“all these corporations and universities CLAIM TO ditch the ESG and DEI nonsense they were so eager to jump on.”
FTFY. Look at what they actually do. And don’t be surprised when they invoke the “no support for extremists/terrorist” Federal laws instead. NRA member, GOA supporter? You’re on the list.
Too little too late…keep boycotting the bastards,.
they may be based in North Carolina, but I suspect that actual corporate governance, including ‘risk management’, is based in the Northwest Communist Corridor.
BofA thinks it can use the same scam that the universities employ to evade laws against racial discrimination by pretending its ‘case by case’ approach means they’ve stopped discriminating.
States like Texas and Florida need to have laws banning the OPERATION of BofA in their states for discriminating, anywhere, instead of letting them decide when it is safe to discriminate.
We need banks for the economy to function but we don’t need THESE banks. They actually impair economically functioning and not only by discriminating. Too Big to Fail is an abomination but it is official government policy. If they are TBTF, they are too big to exist. So we need to regulate them out of existence. Anti-trust is a good tool but every means available should be used. When they are rubble, the way will be open for new banks some of which could be run by patriots. I guess there is one bank now that is explicitly patriotic- Old Glory Bank and others that don’t discriminate. They are all small, however, and have a disadvantage against the giant oligarchy. This may not matter so much in the electronic age. As always, check the financials.
No sale, BoA. Friends of the Second Amendment will never enter your doors again.
I’m not with Bank of America, I’m with Wells Fargo. Counting down the days, because of ongoing financial ties I’m stuck with them until the end of December. The second I’m free I’m closing every account and investment and starting with my local, small bank. Been waiting 5 years to do this, I hate that I support these jerks.