A California bill would pull state business from Wall Street banks who work with gun makers, in another sign of the growing politicization of the $4 trillion municipal-bond market.
(Bloomberg) — A California bill would pull state business from Wall Street banks who work with gun makers, in another sign of the growing politicization of the $4 trillion municipal-bond market.
Legislation filed in the state Senate earlier this month by a Democrat from Orange County would “prohibit financial institutions that do business with gun manufacturers from doing business with the state of California,” according to the bill’s text. If enacted, it could have major repercussions in one of the largest segments of the $4 trillion municipal-bond market.
Wall Street banks have been caught in the US debate over firearms as a handful of states consider policies limiting government business with firms that restrict the gun industry. The pending California legislation is the opposite of a 2021 law passed in Texas that bars most government contracts there with companies that curb their business with the gun industry.
Read more: Citi Again Faces Texas Ban Over Gun Law, Whipsawing Muni Work
California issuers sold $46 billion of municipal bonds in 2022, following $84 billion in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The proposal comes just weeks after two mass shootings in California left 18 people dead and a spree at Michigan State University that killed three students.
“Michigan State. Half Moon Bay. Monterey Park. And on and on and on. There is no place in America that is safe from the epidemic of gun violence,” Senator Dave Min, the author of the bill, said in a press release. “And unfortunately, this epidemic is being bankrolled by financial institutions that have turned a blind eye towards the horrors that their investments in the gun industry have created.”
The legislation would impact every area of California public finances including “municipal bonds, capital projects, and the state’s debt portfolio,” according to the release. The proposed bill calls on “financial institutions that do business with the State to adopt the same approach with their investment portfolios if they wish to continue banking transactions with the State of California.”
The Bond Buyer reported on the proposed legislation earlier.
In 2021, Texas legislators passed legislation that bars public contracts with companies that have restrictive policies toward the gun industry. Since that law went into effect, Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. haven’t underwritten a sale by the state of Texas or its municipalities, and Citigroup Inc. was recently barred from the market by Attorney General Ken Paxton for being in violation of their policy.
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