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Goldman Sachs has given up its guarantees to bring a certain number of public companies with different board members to an increasingly severe environment around diversified plans in the United States.
Wall Street Bank had said in 2020 that it would only offer an IPO for a company with at least one diversified board member (broadly defined as a non-white man). A year later, the request lifted two different board members, one of which had to be a woman.
Investment banks are rolling back now. A Goldman Sachs spokesman referred to a recent U.S. ruling that revoked Nasdaq’s request for companies to publicly disclose diversity statistics at the board level and have or explain why they do not have diverse board members.
“We ended a formal board diversity policy due to legal developments related to board diversity requirements,” Goldman Sachs said in a statement. “We continue to believe that successful boards benefit from different backgrounds and perspectives and we will Encourage them to take this approach.”
Goldman is one of the leading investment banks that will open the company. Its demand was the first for Wall Street Bank, a noteworthy step reflecting the increased diversity of senior corporate leadership positions under the banner of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
However, the thrust of this DEI has faced strong opposition in recent months following Donald Trump’s election victory. Although Goldman Sachs has maintained its internal diversity goals, many companies have overturned their DEI goals.
Goldman has formed a dedicated team to help the company meet its diversity requirements, and the bank plans to keep it in place to help provide a variety of board candidates.
Bloomberg earlier reported Goldman’s decision to back off demand.
