Saudi Crisis Shows Wall Street Struggle Between Ethics and Cash - Bloomberg

Saudi Crisis Shows Wall Street Struggle Between Ethics and Cash - Bloomberg:

As chief executive of the world’s biggest asset manager, Larry Fink began the year with a call to the thousands of companies that the firm holds stakes in: Show how they make a “positive contribution to society.”

Now Fink’s BlackRock Inc., overseeing more than $6 trillion of other people’s money, is facing a comparable challenge, stuck between conscience and the implacable demands of the bottom line.

While BlackRock and the rest of the financial industry have targeted Saudi Arabia as a massive revenue generator, they were compelled to act in the wake of reports that U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi was allegedly killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. On Saturday, the Saudi government confirmed that Khashoggi had died after an argument at the consulate.