Morningstar Agrees to Eliminate Anti-Israel Bias In Investment Rating System
Steps the investment management firm agreed to take include barring biased sources like the UN Human Rights Council and WhoProfits from its reporting.
Back in August, LIF reported that 19 state attorneys general (spearheaded by Missouri AG Eric Schmitt) had launched an investigation into the investment management firm Morningstar, Inc. The investigation was to determine whether Morningstar had violated consumer-protection law and unfair trade practices, based at least partly on its anti-Israel practices.
The allegations arose after Morningstar bought Sustainalytics, a Dutch Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings and research firm known to be biased against Israel. Although Morningstar denied supporting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), the company and its Sustainalytics subsidiary have been accused of utilizing anti-Israel sources and weighing them disproportionately in assigning ESG risk ratings to companies as guidance for socially-minded investors. The ratings assigned a higher risk simply for doing business in or with Israel or in Israel-controlled territories.
EXCLUSIVE @MorningstarInc comes to an agreement with pro-Israel organizations after #BDS accusations.https://t.co/zHPMhPJK2t
— Jewish News Syndicate (@JNS_org) October 31, 2022
On October 31, 2022, Morningstar reached an agreement with several pro-Israel organizations to root out its anti-Israel bias.
Morningstar has committed to several new practices, including:
- Barring the use of biased sources, such as the UN Human Rights Council and WhoProfits, from its reporting
- Using geographic names (e.g., West Bank, east Jerusalem) in relevant regions, rather than “Occupied Palestinian Territory”
- Ensuring that businesses operating in Israeli-Palestinian conflict areas or contributing to Israel’s defense against terrorism are not treated as de facto violators of human rights
- Removing references to the BDS campaign
- Providing ongoing anti-bias training to staff
- Bringing in independent experts to ensure that ESG ratings do not single out and discriminate against Israel
Groups involved in the Morningstar negotiations include The Jewish Federations of North America, Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, JLens, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, in coordination with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Hadassah the Women’s Zionist Organization, Jewish Funders Network, Combat Antisemitism Movement, Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago, UJA-Federation of New York, and Christians United for Israel.
LIF reached out to the office of Missouri’s Attorney General for comment. According to Christopher Nuelle, the AG’s Press Secretary, Schmitt has no comment at this time.
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Spokesperson for Morningstar said, “We were faced with a tough choice, eitheir root out our anti-Israel bias or change our name to Hesperus.”
As in Longfellow’s ‘Wreck of’?
Trust but verify; Israel may be the last thing Americans agree on but corporate America has never reflected American popular opinion (and still doesn’t).
It is doing a fine job of reflecting systemic leftist antisemitism…
I wonder if “Ye” and his treatment has anything to do with this
Highly unlikely; Israel is possibly the only unifying issue in the United States; Democrats and Republicans are both pro-Israel.
A politician threatening a corporation over actions that are both anti-Israel and anti-Semitic is a gigantic loser for the corporation.
…or they could just stop that ESG nonsense entirely.
“Embracing Socialist Goals….”
Here is another much bigger investment-related scandal that is going shock a lot of people after the elections:
https://justthenews.com/accountability/republicans-chief-house-investigator-vows-take-bureaucracy-starting-vaccine
NIH employees have over $193 million of “royalties” or as we call them, kick-backs for taxpayer-funded drugs they approve. Tip of the iceberg.
Of course, we are trusting McCarthy and House Republicans to actually do what they promise for a change. A big “if”.
NIH is managed like the Twitter and is even more bloated with useless employees, especially at the top.
Hidden Lede: “Morningstar” is still a thing.