BlackRock — which for years has courted controversy with its focus on so-called ESG, or Environmental Social Governance investing — is considering an exit of theThe investment giant led by billionaire CEO Larry Fink is poised for a pivot as pressure grows on big corporations to reverse woke business agendas, and comes as others leave the coalition including mega bank JPMorgan Chase. In recent weeks.
Larry Fink’s BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with more than $10 trillion in assets under manager, was a leader in ESG investing.When it joined the Net Zero Alliance in 2021 with other major corporations, it was seen as a way to institutionalize so-called sustainable investing in the corporate ecosystem.in red states such as Texas and Florida.
Fink has been slowly walking back his once strident proselytizing of ESG. BlackRock money managers in the US are no longer under pressure to use ESG screens in all investment decisions, instead doing it just for clients that ask for such methods. By exiting the alliance, it’s a further sign that BlackRock and corporate America in general sees even more pushback not just in ESG investing, but in all aspects of corporate wokeism.A consumer backlash ensued as well as a Supreme Court ruling making such de facto hiring quotas illegal, prompting scores of companies to now