Equality
BlackRock, Goldman Join Racial-Justice Push in Muni-Bond Market
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Asking issuers about social policies ahead of bond offerings
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‘They are mammoth institutions that can impact pricing levels’
Some of Wall Street’s biggest buyers of America’s state and local government bonds are starting to ask questions about racial equity.
Five investment giants -- BlackRock Inc., Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Lord, Abbett & Co., Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Vanguard Group Inc. -- are working with two minority-owned underwriters, Loop Capital Markets and Siebert Williams Shank & Co., to develop and distribute a questionnaire that governments will be asked to fill out before new bond deals are arranged. It will ask about policing policies, efforts to combat race-based inequality, social services and the demographic breakdown of the government’s workforce, among other things.
