Florida joined half the states in the U.S. with a new law signed by Governor DeSantis today that allows credit unions to become qualified public depositories, meaning that they could receive municipal funds for deposit.
DeSantis says the new law, which goes into effect on July 1st, will protect Floridians from the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) movement.
He says ESG is an effort to inject woke political ideology across the financial sector.
Florida's chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis says, "banks are using the money to create social change and the new law gives the credit unions the benefit of parking public funds without invoking an agenda."
DeSantis says the new bill opens up competition which is a better deal for taxpayer dollars.
One in three Floridians is a member of a credit union.