Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, Chair of the Subcommittee on Diversity and Inclusion, sent requests to the nation’s 31 largest investment firms—those with $400 billion or more of assets under management—for data on their diversity and inclusion.
“We are making progress to ensure a comprehensive understanding of diversity and inclusion performance in the financial services industry,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “However, this cannot be achieved until organizations, especially the largest investment managers, disclose their diversity data and policies with the Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion, Congress, and the public.”
The lawmakers say the requests are part of a “longstanding effort to hold the financial services sector accountable and provide the American public with a complete picture of how financial firms are meeting their commitments to diversity and inclusion.”
They requested information about each institution’s diversity and inclusion data and policies from 2016 through the present, including:
- workforce and board diversity;
- spending with diverse suppliers, including the use of diverse asset management firms; and
- challenges implementing diversity and inclusion policies and practices.
List of firms that received the requests
BlackRock
Vanguard Group
State Street Global
Fidelity Investments
J.P. Morgan Chase
Capital Group
Bank of New York Mellon
Goldman Sachs
Prudential Financial
Northern Trust
Invesco
T. Rowe Price
Wellington Management
Morgan Stanley
Wells Fargo
Nuveen
Legg Mason
Ameriprise Financial
Principal Financial
Affiliated Managers Group
Franklin Templeton
AllianceBernstein
Dimensional Fund Advisors
MetLife Investment
New York Life Investments
Geode Capital Management
Federated Hermes
Blackstone Group
MassMutual
Eaton Vance
Charles Schwab Investment
“With these data requests to America’s largest investment firms, we are continuing to hold the financial services industry accountable for diversity and inclusion,” Waters said in a statement. “Generally, investment firms have failed to prioritize diversity and inclusion on their staffs and boards and have also failed to prioritize doing business with diverse-owned asset managers. Chair Beatty and I are requesting this information both to gain specific data about the diversity and inclusion policies, practices and outcomes from this sector, and to make clear that these firms will be held publicly accountable.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
