West Virginia Treasurer adds 4 banks to restricted list over ESG policies
(The Center Square) – West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore announced four more banks have been added to the state’s Restricted Financial Institutions List, meaning the state will no longer do business with them.
The West Virginia State Treasurer’s Office’s Investment and Banking Services Division managed roughly $22 billion in banking transactions over the past year.
The law allowing the restricted list passed in 2022 and allows the treasurer to post a list of companies that refuse, terminate or limit doing business with coal, oil or natural gas companies without a reasonable business purpose.
“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 said in a statement. “My action today represents our continued commitment to protect state funds from furthering these politically motivated, subjective ESG policies that attempt to cut off financing for our coal, oil and natural gas industries and harm our state.”
Citigroup, HSBC Holdings, TD Bank and The Northern Trust Company were added to the list that already included BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.
“SFOF has highlighted again and again how ESG investments are a losing proposition,” said State Financial Officers Foundation CEO Derek Kreifels. “By adding another four banks to its restricted financial institution list, West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore is continuing to lead the charge in the fight against ESG. I applaud Treasurer Moore for standing up against ESG activism. He has our full support.”
