Texas has added NatWest to its list of financial institutions it asserts is boycotting the fossil-fuels industry.
The state’s comptroller, Glenn Hegar, included the British bank Wednesday because of a policy that would limit NatWest’s lending for financing oil and gas exploration, extraction and production for new customers after the end of 2025, a spokesperson for Hegar’s office told Bloomberg and Reuters.
“We will not renew, refinance or extend existing reserve based lending used specifically for the purpose of financing oil and gas exploration, extraction and production,” NatWest’s policy states.
NatWest declined to comment to Reuters.
The bank’s addition expands Texas’ “boycott” list to 16 financial institutions. But the state has shied away from including large U.S. banks. Asset manager BlackRock is the only U.S. company on the list, which the comptroller’s office updates quarterly.
The comptroller’s office did not immediately respond to a question on the impact of NatWest’s placement on the list.
The list was created a 2021 law passed requiring the state to stop business interactions with companies that “limit commercial relations” with fossil fuel companies. When a company secures a place on the divestment list, state pension funds and other government organizations have 30 days to report their direct and indirect holdings with the company. Listed companies have 90 days to show that they don’t boycott fossil fuels.
Hegar first published the list in August 2022 and included several European heavyweights, including BNP Paribas, UBS and Credit Suisse. The state added HSBC in March 2023 and French banks Société Générale and Crédit Agricole in November.
Texas can be a difficult market for banks whose fossil-fuel lending policies are called into question. The Texas attorney general has probed whether JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other financial should be barred from municipal bonds because of their membership in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. The attorney general later did prohibit one of the investigated banks — Barclays — from participating in the muni bond market.
But Texas isn’t the only state to restrict lenders from state contracts over environmental, social and governance policies. West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma and others have also floated divestment lists since 2022.
