Treasurer Beadle pressures Morningstar to stop giving negative ratings to firms connected to Israel

Treasurer Beadle, along with other financial officers, has sent a letter urging Morningstar to end their practice of negatively rating firms that have ties to Israel through their subsidiary, Sustainalytics.

“After reviewing your corporate statements of March 2021 and June 2022, an independent review conducted by White & Case, a follow-on analysis of the said report,2 and a recent letter sent to Morningstar by dozens of national and regional Jewish organizations around the country,3 it is clear to us that the environmental, social, governance (ESG) research and ratings products offered by Sustainalytics are deeply infused with anti-Israel bias. Specifically, Sustainalytics relies on anti- Israel sources and automatically punishes any company involved in the Israeli economy in its ratings system.”, the letter states.

“North Dakota has long supported our allies in Israel and that includes through our own investment activities. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions efforts against Israel is harmful to global peace and is a terrible movement that is trying to isolate Israel and weaken America’s allies.” said Treasurer Beadle.

Read the letter in full here:

https://sfof.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Anti-BDS-Letter-to-Morningstar-PDF.pdf