(Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Texas risks hurting its business-friendly reputation with laws that seek to punish Wall Street banks for policies limiting work with the gun and fossil fuel industries, in an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday.
While Texas is a “welcoming” place for business, “I think it’s a mistake to damage it even a little way,” Dimon, chief of the largest bank in the U.S., told Bloomberg.
Republicans have been ramping up pressure on the finance industry over environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment practices. Texas enacted a law in 2021 prohibiting government contracts with entities that discriminated against the firearms industry.
This year, Kentucky warned 11 major financial companies, including Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and BlackRock Inc of potential divestment over their “boycott” of energy companies.
In the past year, states like West Virginia and Texas have also boycotted several financial firms.
“We don’t discriminate or boycott anybody, neither for political affiliation nor for anything else,” Dimon told Bloomberg.
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(Reporting by Shubhendu Deshmukh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)