AG Brown and Coalition Score Victory for Consumer Choice and Corporate Accountability

Salt Lake City, Utah—Led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown and 17 states announced yesterday the conclusion of their investigation into Wells Fargo & Company following the company’s decision to abandon certain Environmental Social Governance (ESG) policies. 

“Banks should not be in the business of evaluating customers on the basis of their politics. Wells Fargo made the right choice by leaving that kind of policymaking to elected officials, who are accountable to the people,” said AG Brown. “I applaud this decision which puts consumers first, and am confident that other companies will follow in their footsteps.”

The coalition has been investigating whether Wells Fargo and five other American banks—Bank of America Corporation; Citigroup Inc.; The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; and Morgan Stanley—violated antitrust or consumer protection laws by implementing net-zero emissions policies and restricting financing. By joining initiatives like the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which required member banks to align their portfolios to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and set specific targets for “carbon-intensive sectors” by 2030, these banks potentially compromised their fiduciary obligations to customers and investors and simultaneously usurped the policy-making authority of America’s elected representatives. 

Recently, Wells Fargo announced that it was ending its membership in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.  Wells Fargo further announced that it was “discontinuing our sector-specific 2030 interim financed emissions targets and our goal to achieve net zero by 2050 for financed emissions.” While other banks have also recently ended their Net-Zero Banking Alliance memberships, only Wells Fargo has publicly ended the ESG goals mandated by the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. The Office of the Tennessee Attorney General will continue to lead the coalition’s investigation into the other five banks. 

AG Brown is joined in the announcement by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.