Title	Key Dates	Nature of Action	ESG Category	Summary
HB1845: To Amend The Law Concerning Environmental, Social Justice, Or Governance Scores	Effective date 8/1/2023 Adopted 4/12/2023 Introduced 4/3/2023	Legislation	Restrict Use of ESG Factors; Focus on Pecuniary Characteristics	■ Amends existing Arkansas statute to authorize the ESG Oversight Committee, as created by HB1307 below, to replace the State Treasurer in determining whether a financial service provider violates the state's ESG rules.
HB1307: Concerning The Regulation Of ESG Scores	Effective date 8/1/2023 Adopted 3/30/2023 Introduced 1/26/2023	Legislation	Restrict Use of ESG Factors; Focus on Pecuniary Characteristics	■ Authorizes the state treasurer to maintain a list of certain financial services providers and to divest certain investments or obligations due to the use of environmental, social justice, or governance-related metrics and discrimination against the energy, fossil fuel, firearms, or ammunition industries. ■ Requires the state treasurer's evaluation of an investment to be based only on pecuniary factors. ■ Creates the ESG Oversight Committee to determine a list of financial services providers that discriminate against energy, fossil fuel, firearms, or ammunition companies or otherwise refuse to deal with them based on ESG-related factors. SUBSEQUENT DEVELOPMENTS: On April 15, 2024, the ESG Oversight Committee identified the following financial services providers as discriminating against energy, fossil fuel, firearm, or ammunition companies or otherwise refusing to deal based on environmental, social justice, and other governance-related factors. The six financial service companies (including affiliates) are: ■ Credit Suisse Asset Management, Credit Suisse Group AG, Credit Suisse Securities LLC; ■ Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Goldman Sachs & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc.; ■ Nomura Asset Management, Nomura Group, Nomura Securities; ■ Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada Global Asset Management, RBC Capital Markets; ■ TD Asset Management, TD Bank Group, TD Securities; ■ UBS Group AG, UBS Asset Management, UBS Securities LLC, UBS Financial Services Inc. The Committee gave written notice of their intent to place these six companies on a list of companies that are in violation of the statute. The companies have 30 days to respond. The Committee is scheduled to meet again on May 6, 2024, to evaluate any responses received from the six companies and then finalize the list.
			Target Entities that Boycott Certain Industries
			Prohibit Discrimination on Basis of Social Credit or ESG Scores
HB1253: To Create The State Government Employee Retirement Protection Act	Effective date 8/1/2023 Adopted 4/10/2023 Introduced 1/25/2023	Legislation	Restrict Use of ESG Factors; Focus on Pecuniary Characteristics	■ Requires a fiduciary to discharge its duties with respect to any state of Arkansas pension benefit plan solely in the pecuniary interest of the participants and beneficiaries. A fiduciary may not promote a non-pecuniary benefit or any other non-pecuniary goals. ■ An ESG consideration is a pecuniary factor only if it presents an economic risk or opportunity that a qualified investment professional would treat as a material economic consideration under generally accepted investment theories. ■ Requires all shares held directly or indirectly by or on behalf of a pension benefit plan or its beneficiaries or both to be voted solely in the pecuniary interest of the pension benefit plan participants. Prohibits voting to further a non-pecuniary or an ESG goal, unless no economically practicable alternative is available.
SB62: To Prohibit Public Entities From Contracting With Companies That Boycott Energy, Fossil Fuel, Firearms, and Ammunition Industries	Adopted and in effect 4/11/2023 Introduced 1/17/2023	Legislation	Target Entities that Boycott Certain Industries	■ Prohibits public entities from contracting with companies that boycott energy, fossil fuel, firearms, and ammunition industries; and for other purposes. Requires companies to certify that they are not currently engaged in, and will not for the duration of the contract engage in, a boycott of energy, fossil fuel, firearms, and ammunition industries. ■ SB62 does not apply if the company offers to provide the goods or services for at least 20% less than the lowest certifying business or to contracts with a total potential value of less than seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000).
Arkansas State Treasurer Yanks about $125M Out of Accounts Managed by BlackRock	Adopted and in effect 3/17/2022	Enforcement / Divestment	Restrict Use of ESG Factors; Focus on Pecuniary Characteristics	■ The state treasurer announced that Arkansas would divest $125 million from money market accounts managed by BlackRock. A spokeswoman for the treasurer stated that the divestment was due to what she claims was BlackRock "handpicking companies that aligned with their ESG beliefs and beliefs we feel most Arkansans are opposed to." The state treasury invests approximately $6 billion in state funds.

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