SEC fines Goldman Sachs AM $4m over lax ESG policies

Failures over ‘policies and procedures'

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has fined Goldman Sachs Asset Management $4m for failing to properly uphold the firm’s ESG policies.

The settlement, which involves two mutual funds and one separately managed account strategy, argued that GSAM had "several policies and procedures failures" in its ESG research. The SEC said that the firm did not have any written policies and procedures for ESG research in one of its products between April 2017 and June 2018, and even after they were established, failed to consistently follow them until February 2020. Meanwhile, it shared information about its policies and procedures with third parties, such as intermediaries, while failing to follow them consistency. The SEC gave ...