Florida CFO Wants BlackRock Cut From Managing Pensions Over ESG Stance

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis is urging the agency that manages the state pension funds to remove BlackRock Inc. as one of its asset managers, in yet another strike against the firm over its environmental, social and governance investing practices.

In a letter dated Wednesday to Lamar Taylor, interim executive director and chief investment officer of the State Board of Administration, Patronis explained his decision last week to divest $2 billion of state assets from BlackRock. He urged the board, which oversees more than $217 billion of the state’s investments including pensions, to reconsider having the world’s largest asset manager invest Florida dollars.