BlackRock Facing More Blowback Over ESG as GOP Pressure Mounts
Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive officer of BlackRock.
Photographer: Ting Shen/BloombergIt’s been a tough couple weeks for BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest money manager, which endured fresh blows from Republican officials sharply critical of ESG.
On Wednesday, Texas said one of its Senate committees had issued a subpoena requesting documents about BlackRock’s environmental, social and governance practices, and asked for at least one of six executives, including Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink, to attend a Dec. 15 hearing. On the same day, Vanguard Group Inc., one of BlackRock’s main rivals, withdrew from the world’s largest climate-finance coalition, creating a potential selling point to anti-ESG clients. Florida said last week it would pull about $2 billion from BlackRock because of its ESG investments and Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration is urging the manager of its pension to remove BlackRock as an asset manager.