States continue to enact laws focused on ESG

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On May 2, Florida enacted a wide-ranging “anti-ESG” law, which will become effective on July 1. Among other requirements, the law requires that all investment decisions regarding Florida state money be based “solely on pecuniary factors”, and prohibits state and local governments from issuing ESG bonds or considering ESG in their procurement and contracting process. In addition, the law prohibits certain financial institutions (e.g., banks with “qualified public depositories” status, banks subject to the Florida financial institutions codes, and consumer finance lenders and money services businesses licensed under Florida law) from “deny[ing] or cancel[ling] [their] services to a person”, or “otherwise discriminat[ing] against a person in making available such services or in the terms or conditions of such services” on the basis of factors such as political or religious beliefs or affiliations or “social credit scores”.