NYC Comptroller Calls for City Pensions to Drop BlackRock, Fidelity, PanAgora

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, the trustee and fiduciary for the city’s five pension funds, recommended that three of the funds drop BlackRock, Fidelity and PanAgora Asset Management because the asset managers have “inadequate decarbonization plans.”

BlackRock, which manages $42.3 billion worth of index funds for the pension funds, as well as Fidelity and PanAgora, were found to have “failed to meet the systems’ climate expectations,” Lander said in a statement.

Lander, who is leaving office on January 1 at the end of his term, said Wednesday he has updated the city’s Net Zero Implementation Plan for the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the City of New York and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System. In the update, Lander recommended that the three pension funds rebid BlackRock’s U.S. public equities index mandates and terminate those of active managers Fidelity and PanAgora.

The comptroller made the recommendation after an evaluation of the pension funds’ 49 public-market managers. While 46 of the systems’ public-market managers submitted decarbonization plans that meet the requirements of the Net Zero Implementation Plans, the three asset managers failed to meet the pension funds’ climate expectations.

The trustees of NYCERS, TRS and BERS adopted net zero implementation plans in 2023, in which they committed their funds to reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2040, according to Lander. This includes committing the funds to interim targets and to disclosing emissions; engaging asset managers and portfolio companies to adopt net-zero policies; investing in climate change solutions; and divesting to lower risk, according to information Lander released.

According to the comptroller’s office, the pension funds collectively have reduced financed greenhouse gas emissions by 37% since 2019, divested from fossil fuel reserve owners, and grew their climate-related investments to $11.9 billion, while registering a 10.5% return for fiscal 2025 that beat its actuarial target by 350 basis points.

“The systemic risk of the climate crisis threatens the long-term value of New York City’s pension funds,” Lander said in a statement. “I am calling on my fellow trustees to move our money away from the three asset managers—BlackRock, Fidelity, and PanAgora—who fail to address climate risk with the seriousness we expect.”

Lander said that after the administration of President Donald Trump changed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s requirements that public companies must disclose climate-related risks and greenhouse gas emissions, BlackRock ended engaging with U.S. companies on proxy voting issues in situations when the manager owns at least a 5% share. Because of the disengagement, Lander said BlackRock “does not sufficiently encourage portfolio companies to take concrete decarbonization actions.”

Although BlackRock expanded access to its climate and decarbonization stewardship policy, it still fails to meet the pension funds’ expectations, according to Lander.

The comptroller’s office also alleged that Fidelity has taken an “overly restrictive” interpretation of SEC guidance for companies in the U.S. and abroad to prevent influencing them about decarbonization, “even when such action is financially material.” Due to this, Lander is recommending that TRS terminate Fidelity’s world ex-U.S. small-cap mandate and reallocate its $384 million in assets away from firm.

Additionally, Lander said investment firm PanAgora’s climate-related engagement only concerns disclosing emissions and “fails to encourage companies to take decarbonization actions,” such as setting emissions targets or adopting transition plans. As a result, Lander recommended that NYCERS and TRS drop PanAgora’s U.S. small-cap equity mandate.

BlackRock, in a response to Lander posted on social media, stated that the firm had met earlier in November with the New York City Bureau of Asset Management, which houses the pension funds’ investment team, and updated BAM on the firm’s climate and decarbonization stewardship program. BlackRock’s response also accused the outgoing Lander of “politicization of public pension funds, which undermines the retirement security of hardworking New Yorkers.”

BlackRock also noted that any changes to the pension funds’ investment mandates would require review by the funds’ boards, the BAM investment team and other stakeholders.

“Should they take up your recommendation, we look forward to demonstrating the breadth and depth of our capabilities and the tremendous value we deliver,” wrote BlackRock’s Armando Senra, managing director and head of its Americas institutional business.

Responses from Fidelity and PanAgora were not immediately available.

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