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JPMorgan Chase announced changes to its internal practices on diversity, equity and inclusion and its external memberships in climate-related organizations last week, ESG Dive confirmed Monday.
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The financial institution said in a Friday internal memo, seen by ESG Dive, that it would rebrand its DEI practices “DOI,” with “o” standing for opportunity. Additionally, a spokesperson for the bank said in an emailed statement that JPMorgan Asset Management had left the United Nations-backed Net-Zero Asset Managers initiative last week as well. NZAM previously paused its operations, pending a review of its programs, after BlackRock left the group in January.
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Both changes were first reported by Reuters Friday and follow broader financial industry trends for the year, as banks have broadly backed away from the term DEI and industry climate groups and alliances.
Friday’s internal memo from JPMorgan Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Piepszak said the company has made changes to its DEI programs “and the language [JPMorgan uses] to describe them,” including swapping the “equity” for “opportunity” and renaming the division to Diversity, Opportunity & Inclusion.
“The ‘e’ always meant equal opportunity to [JPMorgan], not equal outcomes, and we believe this more accurately reflects our ongoing approach to reach the most customers and clients to grow our business, create an inclusive workplace for our employees and increase access to opportunities,” Piepszak’s memo said.
The bank said it had “streamlined” some of the diversity programs that were previously managed by the DEI office, integrating some into the human resources or corporate responsibility parts of the business.
The changes come as the Trump administration has increasingly put a focus on corporate DEI programs, including an executive order for his agencies to target private sector initiatives. This has added to the wave of companies who rolled back programs last year, and the pressure has pushed U.S. banks to alter the way they talk about DEI in securities filings.
Among them, JPMorgan said in its most recent annual filing that it “has been and expects that it will continue to be criticized by activists, politicians and other members of the public” about stances it has taken on public policy matters “such as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.” The firm also re-branded a table with employee breakdowns that was titled “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” in last year’s filing to “Workplace Composition.”
