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ESG Will Soon Target You
When we first moved to Florida 15 years ago, we established bank accounts with Chase Bank. We had no mortgage or need for loans, so convenience and no-fee checking made it an easy decision. But over time, we found that the customer service wasn’t stellar. We did most of our banking through the mail, online banking, and direct debits and credits, and frankly, we were lazy. So we didn’t seriously consider changing banks.
Until I learned a couple of years ago that Jamie Dimon, CEO, was boasting of his significant donation to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is well-known for its targeting of conservative groups, often labeled as white supremacists. I ranted about Chase’s donation on Ricochet and called Dimon’s office, where a polite young man told me he’d pass on my criticism to Mr. Dimon.
Right.
Meanwhile, we’re still at Chase, except that we found it was impossible recently to talk to a real person by telephone in our local office. We even had our complaint “bumped up” to someone in Detroit, who was also polite. Even she couldn’t reach anyone in our local office by phone (with her special, magical telephone numbers). And we can’t just walk in to talk to a staff member; we need an appointment.
So why does this all matter now?
Because, despite the inconvenience of having to change some of our automatic debits and credits, we want to change banks. Not just because of the poor service, but because now we are concerned that we will soon be tangled up in the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements of Chase. Although ESG is not yet being applied to individuals, that change is likely to be tried soon.
We know that Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with other states, is clamping down on corporations who think they can dictate the actions and investments of their clients. DeSantis recently acted in response to Paypal freezing funds that belonged to Moms for Liberty, after providing a presentation to the Moms for Liberty group:
A month prior, when DeSantis spoke at the group’s summit in July, PayPal stopped processing their monthly donors and would not let them transfer out any money already in their account. The action was presumably tied to the organization’s ideological views.
Instances just like this one are why DeSantis is working hand in hand with Republican state policymakers to stop the rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. It’s a move that, if successful, would go a long way toward preserving individual liberty and advancing free markets.
ESG metrics are a social credit scoring system designed to transform society by changing the way businesses and, in some cases, their customers are evaluated. Under ESG, companies are awarded or punished with scores based on their commitment to causes favored by elites, not solely traditional business considerations, such as profit, revenue, the quality of goods and services, and employee satisfaction.
DeSantis will present legislation in the 2023 legislative session that would “prohibit big banks, credit card companies, and money transmitters from discriminating against customers based on their religious, political, or social beliefs,” effectively limiting the use of some ESG metrics by financial institutions. It won’t cover every area of potential violation of corporation decision-making, but it’s a start.
Standard & Poors has gotten into the ESG ratings act. Since March, they now issue an ESG Report Card for every state, with a focus that includes climate and social justice activism, and the criteria are arbitrary, according to Utah officials:
‘Russian energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft outscored American energy companies ExxonMobil and Chevron on S&P’s ESG scale,’ they stated. ‘S&P also gave the Chinese state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation a higher ESG score than ExxonMobil and Chevron, despite human rights violations.’
‘Each ratings company has their own set of metrics,’ Jack McPherrin from the Heartland Institute said. ‘They all have different scoring systems. It’s a complete mess that’s designed to be confusing so that the people who are creating these metrics can manipulate the system however they want. It’s doubtful they really care that much about any specific metrics; they’re just using them to institutionalize a framework of control over the market.’
Although ESG is not being used regularly against individuals, there is a serious potential for its application:
A few different things will determine your personal ESG score, many of which can be discovered via your regular credit report and other public records. Your purchase history and also your sales history will have a dramatic effect on your ESG rating as a person.
The charities that you support will also increase or even decrease your ESG score. The platform will track your personal impact in the environment around you through various means, which will also be used to calculate your individual ESG score.
The purpose behind each person being assigned an individual ESG score is to help reward actions that will help move the world towards sustainability. While there are not currently any downsides to having an ESG score, regardless of how high or how low, there will come a time where too low of a score can result in denials for loans or services similar to the way credit scores currently function.
For now, ESG scores for individuals are used as a tracking tool for companies to monitor behavior. For those who have already started using ESG scores as part of their business model, some people with good scores may notice lucrative offers, easier loan terms, and even targeted packages designed to reward green or sustainable behaviors.
* * * *
Although some states, namely Florida, West Virginia, and Utah, are fighting these infringements on our privacy and personal rights, changes are only being made slowly. West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore has banned five banks (including Chase) from state banking contracts, due to those institutions refusing financing for the fossil fuel industry. And I hope that other states will see the virtue and financial benefits of stopping these bankers in their tracks.
Meanwhile, I don’t know where we’ll choose to deposit our funds locally. My beliefs and political choices are none of their business.
Is there a bank anywhere that rejects the ESG requirements?
Published in Culture
I don’t know where to start. The Democrats have taken away every path but violence. Violence is what they need so it must be avoided. – elections? Do you trust them? Even if we take back some seats, so what. They are now brazen in their attacks and intimidation of those we elect. They own social media. They have infected all our institutions. Even the military is infected. You can’t win over 40% of the country. They have been taught to hate Trump and us. They hate Cruz. They hate De Santis. Being elected to Congress as a Republican doesn’t mean much. Just as they release criminals, they will fill the cells with any of us who protest, even peacefully. The news yesterday led to another sleepless night last night. I don’t want to live like this, fearful I will lose my rights, fearful of what they will do to Trump, fearful they will confiscate my savings before a guilty until proven innocent “audit.” I don’t want to live elsewhere. My dd214 says I can be recalled to active duty. Would they recall a 69 year old? To do what?
All I can do is fly the biggest American flag I can and push back against the spreading atheism that is at the heart of the commies. No matter what, we can’t give the godless left the US. That would be the biggest prize of all and doom civilization to another dark age.
Yes, I have had an account with the credit union I joined while I was in the Air Force, over 50 years now. Full service banking worldwide (because Air Force). You used to have to be in some kind of organization or union or something, but those rules are virtually non-existent now from what I can see.
PS: I had an account for a while with one mega-bank (Wells Fargo) and it was a nightmare. Their incompetence on two things that should be routine and automatic almost killed a house sale/purchase we were in. (The buyers of our house were going overseas for a month the day after closing.)
Thinking about moving my banking to Navy Federal CU. I looked at their site, but couldn’t find anything one way or the other re: ESG.
Our everyday banking is with Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU). Their online banking is superb, we can access all of our many accounts easily through our computers and on our phones. Interest rates on loans are lower than any bank, and they pay higher interest on deposits, too. You can deposit a check on your phone, and it goes right through (my investment company where I have a little play-money Roth IRA also takes deposits through their app on my phone). I highly recommend you check out credit unions in your area-I predict there are many that you just haven’t noticed. For veterans, USAA and Navy Federal (mentioned in the previous comment) give good service. And most credit unions have ATMs with no fee; BECU is a participant in a couple of big networks. When we got married, I transferred all my money to BECU, since at that time you had to have the Boeing affiliation to join. That is not true anymore. We have a joint household checking account, and we both can transfer money to it easily online.
It took me five seconds to find this site.
https://www.creditunionsonline.com/top25floridacreditunions.html
They list at least eight credit unions in Florida.
Exactly. We have two CUs in our small community and both of them will open accounts for anyone with money.
As for your comment below (#33), about your experience with Wells Fargo, consider yourself lucky that they didn’t open up some fictitious accounts in your name.
This list is more extensive than the ones I’ve seen! Thanks, RB!
I used a Green Dot “prepaid debit card” for a long time, to get direct deposit from Social Security Disability. They had no monthly fee if at least $1,000 is deposited per month. They have no branches anywhere, as far as I know, but checks can be deposited with their “mobile app” (which regular banks are doing now too) and you can add funds with cash at Dollar Tree stores and some others. No-fee cash withdrawals can be made at banks which belong to some network, Pulse or one of those. In Arizona it was US Bank.
State Employees? How likely is such an organization to NOT be leftist at base?
How could they hire gun-comfortable agents who aren’t conservatives?
Maybe they did!
Oh, and for online shopping etc, might be worth looking into NetSpend. They aren’t quite as good as Green Dot in some ways, but they allow for creating “virtual” debit cards which only exist for a short time. So you can create one to buy something online, and then close it so that no fraudulent transactions can piggy-back.
Yeah, when I read this I had to wonder. The IRS already has the power to garnish our salaries and bank accounts. Why do they need deadly force to do that? I’m remembering the words of Dracula (George Hamilton) in Love at First Bite, “What do they want, my blood?”
But there’s another sobering thought, “Is the Goverment preparing to conduct an armed conflict against its citizens?”
We were not all lefties. So far no complaints, but the world isn’t perfect.
I suppose a lot might depend on whether the employees are unionized.
We bank with a locally owned and operated bank.
I do now, too. I had an account with First Convenience Bank (“a division of First National Bank Texas”) for several years, after they opened some branches inside stores such as Walmart, in Arizona. I liked them a lot, especially because they were open later on weekdays, and even had some Saturday and Sunday business hours.
But they were, as I sometimes describe it, “administratively incapable” of handling an insurance settlement check for roof damage to my place. So I switched to a locally-owned bank where managers can actually make decisions and manage, not just follow a rule book.
It already did – I just left a job because they were pushing ESG down our necks
I seen a couple Machine Learning modules which looks for ESG terms on websites/documents- woke never stops
Or freeze his account.
Share your findings, please.
Many years ago, I participated in a focus group about banking in Seattle. At that time, the big bank in town was Seattle First National Bank (SeaFirst). I enjoyed listening to all the group members dissing SeaFirst, and telling their stories of how bad the customer service was. However, not one of them was willing to change banks! They endured the crap, because at that time, before computers and online banking, it was a big chore to change banks and they weren’t willing to make the effort. Now of course changing banks is much easier, though you still have to account for outstanding checks and buy new ones at your new bank.
My thoughts on the IRS “enforcers” are that they are expecting to have to go against big entities (millionaires and billionaires), and perhaps Mexican drug cartels for money-laundering and other actual crimes. You might want to be well-armed in dealing with that kind of group or individual. But I agree that armed IRS agents are a scary idea.
When Wells Fargo went woke I closed out my account.
There are a lot of leftist superhero fans who fantasize about being men and women of action. They already “know” that they are morally superior and can be trusted to carry weapons.
Some of the local banks here are not woke – all of the national and international ones are already there
Remember, it was the IRS that brought down Al Capone. On the other hand:
Somehow I just don’t see IRS agents as manly types ready to fight for truth and justice blah blah blah.
The Uvalde cops were COPS, they carried guns all the time and practiced and stuff, yet they wouldn’t go into a building where there was one other guy with a gun.
“The banks seem to be just another government department like the universities and hospitals. “
The is essentially the very definition of “Corporatism” where there is an amalgamation of Big Government and the Big Corporations that controls everything. First thought of and initiated by Mussolini, who greatly admired Woodrow Wilson for his strong arm tactics, Totalitarianism and btw the first great Progressive.
Btw, behind all the Big Woke Banks is the looming presence of the FED, which has been strip mining the wealth of the lower 98% for decades.
The funny thing is that many staid and sober people (1) don’t believe there’s any conspiracy, and at the same time (2) believe the conspirators are loony and ineffectual. When I say that the WEF has written books and the UN has published agendas concerning world-molding measures, they say, Oh, they’re crazy. And when I say, Look, they are implementing their plans, they say it’s just coincidence.