GET DAILY REPORT FREE
U.S. banks are scaling back their public support for diversity and inclusion to avoid winding up in the crosshairs of a legal landscape increasingly hostile toward it, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are among the banks removing or watering down public language around efforts to promote or support diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, according to people familiar with the matter. Wells Fargo and Bank of America have also started to pore over their language.
The moves mark the beginning of a pullback from Wall Street’s push into DEI, according to bank executives and lawyers, which came after the 2020 protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man murdered by police in Minneapolis. The banks are joining a retreat by many other big companies that have dialed back similar efforts, including Ford, McDonald’s and Walmart. Tech giants such as Meta Platforms and Alphabet’s Google have done so, too.
More changes are in the works at banks in the coming weeks, when companies release their annual reports, proxies and other public filings. Banks have also launched audits of DEI policies, programs and events that could open them up to legal risks.
