BlackRock, Goldman Join Racial-Justice Push in Muni-Bond Market

Some of Wall Street’s biggest buyers of America’s state and local government bonds are starting to ask questions about racial equity.

Five investment giants -- BlackRock Inc., Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Lord, Abbett & Co., Morgan Stanley Investment Management andVanguard Group Inc. -- are working with two minority-owned underwriters, Loop Capital Markets and Siebert Williams Shank & Co., to develop and distribute a questionnaire that governments will be asked to fill out before new bond deals are arranged. It will ask about policing policies, efforts to combat race-based inequality, social services and the demographic breakdown ...