Goldman Sachs has ended a ban on underwriting companies with all-White, all-male boards, becoming the latest corporate giant to scale back a DEI initiative.

Goldman Sachs has ended its policy requiring IPO clients to have diverse boards, citing a legal ruling that ended a similar initiative at the Nasdaq.

Goldman Sachs is canceling a pledge to ensure diversity on the boards of companies it helps go public. Why it matters: It's the latest corporate rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives following conservative blowback and a series of court rulings calling certain quotas into question.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has changed its stance on underwriting initial public offerings (IPOs) for companies with all-white male boards. In 2020, CEO David Solomon announced that the leading investment bank would only take a company public in the United States or Western Europe if the organization had at least two diverse board members,