Financial Titan Scrapping Policy That Said Company Wouldn’t Take Businesses Public That Had All White, Male Boards

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is scrapping a pledge it made to refuse initial public offering (IPO) 💼Business from companies that had fully white, male boards, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The major investment bank had implemented a policy in 2020 that required it to only take a company public in the U.S. or Western Europe if it had two diverse board members, one of which must be a woman, Bloomberg reported. Goldman Sachs deciding to abandon the diversity pledge comes amid reports of conservative activists calling for several Wall Street giants to revoke policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

David Solomon became the CEO of Goldman Sachs in 2018, and prioritized DEI initiatives during his first year in the position, Bloomberg reported. Gregg Lemkau, who was the head of investment-banking at Goldman Sachs at the time, proposed a diversity threshold for IPOs at the end of 2019, and when Solomon asked him if the bank could do that, Lemkau said “we can do anything we want,” according to a book on the topic, the outlet reported.

In December, an appeals court struck down a similar rule for Nasdaq Inc.’s U.S. exchange. Shortly after returning to the Oval Office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order