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And that means something else now, because many of these very promoted policies and practices are rubbed to be sure that they are not found in the hair of the Trump administration campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion .

Retirement includes investment banks in white collar, consultants, mutual funds and scholarships. The last one was Goldman Sachs, who declared Tuesday that he would abandon a quota that forced the boards of directors of business to include women and members of minority groups. Others to Wall Street reduce efforts to recruit black and Latino employees.

An international bank, BNP Paribas, even made brakes on the programming of new events for International Women’s Day next month.

This withdrawal has so far been less open than, let’s say, in the technological industry, whose managers have made public exhibitions of their support for the anti-division initiatives of President Trump. And some financial companies had started to make changes long before the elections – opening programs aimed at all minority candidates, for example.

The renewed push, however, reflects an acceptance among the financial elite that if it was once a good commercial feeling of defending diversity, it is now advantageous to abandon this cause.

“The speed at which everyone abandons this work and flee this space is quite incredible,” said Seth Welty, a former recruiter of the diversity of investment banks.

In Citi, the employees dotted Mark Mason, the bank’s financial director and one of the most senior black managers in the industry, with a question of whether the bank will hold its Dei promises, he Declared Thursday in a closed meeting Thursday, according to two employees present and a transcription examined by the New York Times.

Mr. Mason told staff that he had few concrete answers. “The strategies and programs that we may have had to evolve, but I do not see our fundamental values ​​change. This is the first point, ”he said.

“The second point may also be obvious: we will have to comply with the law, right?”

Last week, the bank had 93 courses for the training of employees who were described internally at the bank as well related to diversity, said one of the employees of the Citi, asking not to be identified because the No one was allowed to speak publicly. Thirteen included training on the fight against “unconscious biases” or the idea that employees can inadvertently make discrimination against others, the employee said.

Asked about the offers, Citi said that the count was inaccurate. A spokesperson said the total was 10 in the United States if the statement excluded courses such as those required by law, repeated in several languages ​​and certain that the bank – after the Times surveys – had determined, were inactively described as linked to diversity. Some should have been classified as “anti-harassment” and only one is specifically devoted to unconscious biases, the spokesperson said.

“We continue to actively examine the decrees to understand any impact they may have on our business and will make all the required changes,” she wrote in a statement sent by e-mail.

A unleashed debate

The financiers were bubbling as the inauguration of Mr. Trump approaches, because he chose faces adapted to the best jobs and promised less interference in business.

He rewarded their hope in certain respects – by releaseing the financial protection office of consumers, for one – but put them on the defensive Dei. The president signed radical executive orders to reduce the efforts of the Government of the DEI, and last week, the Ministry of Justice declared that it would order its division of civil rights to investigate and penalize the activities of DEI private sector.

At the end of last month, 11 prosecutors of the Republican State wrote to Blackrock, Goldman Sachs, Jpmorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley with a series of accusations, including that they illegally use preferences racial during hiring, provisions and selection of suppliers.

“Political objectives have” wrote the prosecutors general, “influenced your decision -making at the expense of your statutory and contractual obligations”.

Within these companies, threats have triggered alarms.

Take Goldman, who during the term of six years of his CEO, David Mr. Solomon, posted a DEI file typical of many large companies.

He promised to promote more female partners, ordered public reports which showed that the bank employed a low percentage and increasing black managers (2.7% in 2019; 3.8% in 2023) and established a rule Forcing American and European customers to appoint at least two members of the board of directors “various” before Goldman would help to submit their first public offers.

“In the long term, I think, this is the best advice for businesses,” said Solomon in 2020, echoing frequent declarations at Wall Street than more diversity would generate more benefits.

Almost immediately after Mr. Trump’s election, however, Goldman’s leaders realized that they were risking his anger, triggering a feverish internal debate at the bank, three leaders involved in the discussions said. It is less because Mr. Solomon had changed his mind on the merits – he did not do it, two people who spoke to him, but because leaving it in place could make the bank a target for Mr. Trump and the militants, the people say.

From January, the bank initially established its rules, allowing two of its customers to submit public offers without meeting the requirements of the board of directors, because Mr. Solomon asked the Bank’s lawyers to weigh if The company risked legal action to use gender and racial preferences, one of the people said. However, some inside Goldman continued to encourage the CEO to keep the course or stop applying politics without making an official change, noting the danger of appearing to manage to evolve politics.

Tuesday, Goldman officially put an end to the program, with a spokesman for the bank, Tony Fratto, citing “legal developments”.

“We continue to believe that successful advice benefit from various horizons and perspectives, and we will encourage them to adopt this approach,” Fratto said in a statement.

New rules

The financial world is different from retailers such as Costco, whose customers can quickly choose to buy elsewhere. Many of the Conservative Activiss and Social Media Influencers who Have Succeeded, for Instance, in Persuading Tractor Supply to Abandon Its Dei Programs Had Been Turned Back for Years in Strength Shareholder Votes on the Alleged Mistreatment of Right-Leaning Political and Religious Depositors Major banks.

Now they get a large part of what they want without even a vote.

The day after the inauguration of Mr. Trump, the Nasdaq drawn rules which ordered the companies listed on the scholarship to disclose their diversity statistics at the level of the board of directors and to explain if they did not have a sufficient female or minority representation.

A few days later, Vanguard, the active manager who has a piece of practically all important public companies on earth, said that she would no longer put pressure on the boards of directors to guarantee “the diversity of sex, of race and ethnicity ”.

A Vanguard spokesperson said that the change reflected an “developing regulatory landscape on local markets”. He said in a press release: “We continue to believe that the diversity of the board of directors in several dimensions, including skills, experience, perspective and personal characteristics, leads to cognitive diversity.”

The services of institutional shareholders, who advise major investors on how to vote in terms of shareholders, said on Tuesday that it would cease to take into account diversity factors. ISS cited Mr. Trump’s statements and “increased attention” on Dei

Some stick to their plans. The CEO of Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing, said on January 30 that he was “firmly behind” the Bank’s Dei program, and his counterpart at the Swiss bank UBS struck similar tickets.

Several large banks, including JPMorgan, the largest lender in the country, continue to exploit gigantic investment funds which, according to them, are trained to fill the gap of racial heritage. Questioned by CNBC after the inauguration of Mr. Trump on the pressure of conservative activists, Jamie Dimon, Managing Director of JPMorgan, replied: “Bring them”. But he quickly added: “This does not mean that you will not change policies in the future.”

In BNP Paribas, based in Paris, the change is more immediate. For at least a decade, BNP resumed the cause of gender parity in the bank, an industry dominated by men. BNP demanded internally that meetings of four people should include at least one woman, and she endeavored to mark International Women’s Day in March, even by promoting that her director general was appointed champion “Heforshe By the United Nations for its gender – parity efforts.

During last week, however, the bank interrupted plans to extend the festivities focused on women next month during a tennis tournament which he sponsors, in particular by revoining the invitations to speakers. The bank told certain staff members that he was deemed to draw attention to his efforts, according to an informed person of planning who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Michelle Sprod, a BNP spokesperson, confirmed the decision not to extend the program or others in other sports. She cited planning and the limitations of resources. “We will do it next year,” she said.

Maureen Farrell Contributed reports.