Wednesday, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led a coalition of 23 states in a letter to International Shareholder Services (“ISS”) and Glass Lewis. The letter urges the companies to follow the law and quit recommending woke investment strategies that jeopardize millions of Americans’ retirement security. The companies also wrongfully recommend that banks not disclose why they close bank accounts for those on the wrong side of ISS’s and Glass Lewis’s woke politics.
ISS and Glass Lewis are two of the world’s largest Wall Street advising companies, controlling as much as 97% of their specific market in 2019. That market control gives the two companies major power over Americans’ pensions, investments, public companies, and the global economy. ISS and Glass Lewis decided that big banks do not have to disclose why they close someone’s bank account. This decision has allowed for banks to target those they disagree with, such as guns rights groups, religious groups, and conservative individuals. The States wrote to ISS and Glass Lewis addressing concerns with their making recommendations based on woke politics, rather than focusing on transparency and Americans receiving the best returns on their investments.
“Woke Wall Street is sabotaging businesses and gambling millions of Americans’ retirement savings,” said Attorney General Bird. “But not on my watch. We’re calling out Woke Wall Street and demanding they follow the law. Iowans spend a lifetime saving up for retirement and building their businesses. Their livelihoods shouldn’t be jeopardized, or their bank accounts targeted, for the sake of someone else’s woke political agenda.”
The States are demanding that ISS and Glass Lewis endorse transparency, make voting recommendations free of fake or misleading information, and uphold their legal duties.
Iowa led the letter joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read the full letter here.
