Goldman Sachs is scrapping diversity factors for its board and will no longer take into account candidates’ race, sexual orientation or gender identity.
The banking giant had already quietly dropped commitments to diversity amid a broader retreat in diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) metrics in corporate America which has taken hold since the return of President Trump to the White House.
Its board’s governance committee previously looked for candidates based on four factors, of which one relates to diversity.
While it formerly looked at viewpoints, background, work and military service in addition to ‘other demographics’, the wide description of ‘other’ features – including race, sexuality and gender identity – will now be dropped, the WSJ reports.
The move is said to be a result of a behind-the-scenes request from conservative activist group the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), which owns a small stake in the bank.
NLPC had asked for executives to remove DEI from hiring protocols in September.
The investment bank, which is the second-largest in the US, told the NLPC that it will remove the criteria in an agreement signed between the two parties.
Goldman Sachs has already retreated from certain DEI initiatives over the past year.
Goldman Sachs, led by CEO David Solomon (pictured), is scrapping DEI criteria such as race and sexuality from its board hiring procedures
It follows a series of executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump aimed at dismantling DEI schemes
It has dropped a rule that it would refuse to take companies public if they do not have at least two diverse board members, including at least one woman.
The firm has also made changes to its £7.4 billion ‘One Million Black Women’ diversity campaign and got rid of references to DEI in its latest annual filings.
Goldman scrubbed all references to race on its webpage promoting the One Million Black Women program.
Versions of the webpage that were visible before Trump took office described an initiative by the bank to invest billions of dollars in assisting at least one million black female entrepreneurs by 2030.
Now the page makes references to helping families and low-income neighborhoods in New York City.
Five of Goldman Sachs’ board of 14 are women, and 12 are white.
The departure from DEI initiatives sits in stark contrast to previous comments from CEO David Solomon, who has spoken about elevating women and minority groups within the company. He even called DEI a ‘top priority’.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment when approached by the Daily Mail.
Goldman is one of many large financial institutions to abandon DEI efforts since President Donald Trump took back the White House a little over a year ago.
Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America have all either dialled back or completely abandoned public messaging on DEI.
So too have other major companies like Ford, McDonald’s, Walmart, Meta and Google.
The trend has also spread to some UK firms and bodies, with British financial watchdogs the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority scrapping plans to set new diversity rules in the City of London last March.
Writing to MPs, they said they will not bring forward plans to require banks, insurers and other financial firms to set diversity targets.
And British pharma firm GSK paused its diversity policies for UK employees, claiming it was necessary due to executive orders signed by President Trump.
GSK has also scrubbed references to ‘diversity’ from its website.
Internal communications claimed the company had to make the move due to America being its largest market.
Since Trump’s return to office, he has signed multiple executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI programmes in federal government and the private sector more widely.
