The Arizona Attorney General’s Office says it will no longer investigate major banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America over environmental, social and governance-related investment practices.
Communications director Richie Taylor said the previous AG had five attorneys working on these investigations, but he declined to say what they found.
"The office is more focused on issues that affect and directly impact Arizonans like issues of consumer protection, senior and elder fraud–those types of things," Taylor said. "Things that Attorney General Mayes has signaled as her priorities."
In announcing the inquiry last year, then Attorney General Mark Brnovich said he was concerned banks would deny loans to people who work with fossil fuels.
"These financial institutions are entrusted with protecting a different type of green,” Brnovich said in his announcement.
In October, the state asked the banks for documents related to their involvement with the United Nations’ Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Banks who are members of NZBA have to set emissions reduction targets in their lending and investments to zero before 2050. The state also asked banks to reveal what other climate initiatives they were part of and why, before Mayes suspended the practice last month.
