Montgomery, AL – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, alongside attorneys general from 17 other states, announced the conclusion of their investigation into Wells Fargo & Company following the bank’s decision to abandon certain Environmental Social Governance (ESG) policies. The investigation was part of a broader effort examining whether Wells Fargo and five other major banks engaged in potential antitrust or consumer protection violations related to their participation in ESG-related initiatives.
The coalition’s inquiry focused on whether these banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, improperly collaborated to implement net-zero emissions policies, potentially compromising their fiduciary duties to customers and investors. Specifically, the banks’ participation in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance required them to align their portfolios to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, with interim targets for carbon-intensive industries by 2030. The coalition examined whether such agreements constituted unlawful collusion or infringed on the policymaking authority of elected officials.
Wells Fargo recently announced its withdrawal from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance and the termination of its sector-specific 2030 emissions targets, as well as its broader commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050. While other banks have also exited the alliance, Wells Fargo is the only institution to publicly renounce the ESG policies associated with the initiative.
Attorney General Marshall emphasized the significance of the investigation, stating, “Despite banks having a fiduciary responsibility to their customers, global elites attempted to hijack these financial institutions in order to impose ruinous climate change policies on Americans that could never prevail at the ballot box. Their greed was disguised as ‘environmental justice,’ which is exactly why we have antitrust laws.”
The investigation was led by Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, and Montana, with additional participation from the attorneys general of Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia. The coalition will continue its probe into the remaining five banks to determine whether further legal action is warranted.
