BlackRock
American investment company
Follow BlackRock on Notably News to receive short updates to your email — rarely!
| February 2025 | BlackRock planned to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded product in Europe, likely based in Switzerland, following the success of its U.S. bitcoin-linked product IBIT which gained $57.5 billion in assets by February 2024. |
| February 2025 | A group of 17 U.S. state attorneys general criticized BlackRock for making improper or inadequate disclosures about investments in China. |
| December 3 2024 | BlackRock acquired HPS Investment Partners for $12 billion, with $9.3 billion paid in stock and $3 billion subject to future targets, expanding its private credit investment capabilities. |
| July 15 2024 | BlackRock removed from circulation an advertisement filmed in 2022 that briefly featured Thomas Matthew Crooks, following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. |
| March 2024 | BlackRock launched its first tokenized fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) on Ethereum, which secured $245 million in assets in the first week. |
| January 2024 | BlackRock announced the acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners for $12.5 billion, paying $3 billion in cash and 12 million of its own shares. |
| January 19 2024 | BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) became the first spot bitcoin ETF to reach $1 billion in volume. |
| January 10 2024 | BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF filing, along with 10 others, was approved by the SEC. |
| November 2023 | BlackRock filed an application for a Spot Ethereum ETF. |
| August 2023 | The US House of Representatives' Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party initiated an investigation into BlackRock's investments in Chinese companies, concluding that the firm channeled $1.9 billion into blacklisted entities in 2023. |
| August 2023 | BlackRock signed an agreement with New Zealand to establish a NZ$2 billion investment fund for renewable energy projects, aiming to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030. |
| July 2023 | BlackRock announced a plan to allow retail investors proxy voting in its iShares Core S&P 500 ETF starting in 2024, offering seven different voting policy choices in response to Republican claims about a 'woke agenda'. |
| July 2023 | BlackRock appointed Amin H. Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, to its board to fill a vacancy left by Bader Alsaad in 2024. |
| June 2023 | At the Aspen Ideas Festival, Larry Fink announced he would stop using the term 'ESG' because it has been 'weaponized', later clarifying his stance on conscientious capitalism. |
| June 2023 | BlackRock filed an application with the SEC to launch a Spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF). |
| April 2023 | BlackRock was hired to sell $114 billion in assets of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank after the 2023 United States banking crisis. |
| December 2022 | Jimmy Patronis, Florida's chief financial officer, announced the divestment of $2 billion worth of investments managed by BlackRock, citing the firm's strengthening of ESG standards and policies. BlackRock responded by stating the divestment placed politics over investor interest. |
| December 28 2022 | BlackRock and Volodymyr Zelensky announced coordination for the reconstruction of Ukraine. |
| October 2022 | Louisiana removed $794 million from BlackRock investments due to the company's support of ESG and green energy policies. |
| September 2022 | BlackRock CEO Larry Fink met with Volodymyr Zelensky via video conference. |
| June 2022 | Riley Moore, West Virginia state treasurer, announced that BlackRock and five other financial institutions would no longer be allowed to do business with the state due to the company's advocacy against the fossil fuel industry. |
| January 2022 | BlackRock founder and CEO Larry Fink defended the company's ESG investing approach, asserting that it is 'not woke' and pushing back against accusations of a politically correct agenda. |
| 2021 | BlackRock reached a significant milestone by managing over $10 trillion in assets under management, representing approximately 40% of the United States' nominal GDP of $25.347 trillion. |
| December 2021 | BlackRock was reported to be an investor in two US government-blacklisted companies accused of human rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, notably increasing investment in Hikvision after its blacklisting. |
| November 2021 | BlackRock lowered its investment in India while increasing investment in China, maintaining a dedicated India Fund with investments in start-ups Byju's, Paytm, and Pine Labs. |
| October 2021 | BlackRock launched its Voting Choice program, enabling institutional clients invested in index funds to participate in shareholder voting with various options for engagement. |
| October 2021 | Conservative non-profit group Consumers' Research launched an ad campaign criticizing BlackRock's relationship with the Chinese government, targeting the company's climate change activism. |
| October 2021 | BlackRock pushed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to adopt rules requiring private companies to disclose climate impact and board diversity metrics. |
| August 2021 | BlackRock became the first foreign-owned company allowed by the Chinese government to operate a wholly-owned business in China's mutual fund industry, setting up its first mutual fund and raising over one billion dollars from 111,000 Chinese investors. |
| August 2021 | A former BlackRock executive criticized the firm's ESG investing as a 'dangerous placebo that harms the public interest', arguing that financial institutions are motivated by higher fees. |
| March 4 2021 | U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren suggested that BlackRock should be designated 'too big to fail' and regulated accordingly. |
| 2020 | The American Economic Liberties Project issued a critical report about the 'Big Three' asset management firms, highlighting that BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street collectively manage over $15 trillion in global assets, which is equivalent to more than three-quarters of U.S. gross domestic product. The report called for structural reforms and better regulation of financial markets. |
| 2020 | U.S. Representatives Katie Porter and Jesús 'Chuy' García proposed a U.S. House bill aimed at restraining BlackRock and other shadow banks. |
| August 2020 | BlackRock received approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to establish a mutual fund business, becoming the first global asset manager to get consent from the Chinese government to start operations in the country. |
| March 2020 | Federal Reserve selected BlackRock to manage two corporate bond-buying programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the $500 billion Primary Market Corporate Credit Facility (PMCCF) and Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility (SMCCF). |
| January 2020 | PNC Financial Services sold its stake in BlackRock for $14.4 billion. |
| January 14 2020 | BlackRock CEO Larry Fink announced a shift in investment policy, prioritizing environmental sustainability, selling $500 million of coal-related assets, and creating funds that exclude fossil fuel companies. |
| January 10 2020 | Climate activists rushed into BlackRock France's Paris offices, painting walls and floors with warnings about the company's role in global warming. |
| 2019 | Climate activists conducted street theatre and glued themselves to the door of BlackRock's London offices in protest. |
| May 2019 | BlackRock was criticized for its environmental impact, being a major shareholder in almost all oil supermajors and 7 of the 10 biggest coal producers. |
| 2018 | BlackRock requested Russell 1000 companies to improve gender diversity on their boards of directors, specifically targeting companies with fewer than two women directors. |
| September 2018 | Environmental groups Sierra Club and Amazon Watch launched the 'BlackRock's Big Problem' campaign, criticizing the company as the 'biggest driver of climate destruction on the planet'. |
| 2017 | BlackRock was identified as owning total reserves amounting to 9.5 gigatonnes of emissions, representing 30% of total energy-related emissions. |
| 2017 | BlackRock backed a Carbon Disclosure Project shareholder resolution for ExxonMobil to act on climate change. |
This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article BlackRock, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.