Brian Moynihan

Brian Moynihan

CEO of Bank of AmericA

Since the Paris Agreement, Bank of America under Brian Moynihan’s leadership has funneled $333,158,860,000 to the fossil fuel industry, including $13,724,900,000 to ExxonMobil and $11,698,430,000 to Occidental Petroleum. The bank also financed the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline. Bank of America has made public climate pledges – like its promise to stop financing coal – but then quietly rolled back these commitments with weaker policies. Brian Moynihan is being rewarded heavily for these crimes against the earth – he is compensated handsomely, flies on private jets, receives business awards, and will become Brown University’s 22nd chancellor, effective July 2024. Brian Moynihan must be recognized as the climate criminal he is. 

  • Birthday: October 9, 1959

    Hometown: Marietta, Ohio

    Current residence: Wellesley, Massachusetts

    Current role: Chairman and CEO of Bank of America

    Net worth: 

    Education: 

    • B.A.from Brown University (1981)

    • J.D. from Notre Dame Law School (1984)

    Board memberships, affiliations, and other roles: 

    Past roles: 

    • The Haitian Project (THP)

    • Early board chair of THP

    • His brother – Patrick Moynihan – used to be the president of THP

    • Brian Moynihan encouraged his family to go to Haiti as missionaries

    • Council member of Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (2020-?)

    • Advisory Council member of the Federal Reserve System (2022) 

    • Council Member of World Economic Forum USA

    • Member of Bipartisan Policy Center’s CEO Council on Health and Innovation

    • Chairman of Crossroads Rhode Island (used to be called Travelers Aid Society of Rhode Island) 

    • Director of BlackRock (2009)

    • Executive of Merrill A Bank of America Company (2007-2008) 

    • Executive Vice President of FleetBoston Financial (1993-2004) 

    • Bank merged with BofA

    • Lawyer at Edwards and Angell (1984-1993)

    • Executive at Fleet National Bank

    • Director at Countrywide Bank

    • Executive at LaSalle Bank NA

    • Executive at US Trust NA

    • Executive at FIA Card Services NA

    • Director of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley

    • Member of MENTOR Youth

    • Director of Kennedy Center Corporate Fund

    • Director of YouthBuild Boston

    Fun facts: 

  • Under Brian Moynihan’s leadership, Bank of America is guilty of fossil fuel financing that contributes to climate change and all climate change-driven suffering. The bank is also guilty of greenwashing the public with empty ESG promises and extraction-related human rights violations. This Rainforest Action Network report, “Complicit: Bank of America’s Role in Fossil Fuel Expansion and the Violation of Human Rights” explores the bank’s breadth of violations and failures in depth. 


    In Bank of America’s latest Environmental and Social Risk Policy Framework from December 2023, the bank quietly weakened its policy restrictions, with no public announcement. A couple of years ago, the bank promised not to directly finance oil and gas projects in the Artice, new coal-fired power plants, or thermal coal mines. Now, these projects will go through “enhanced due diligence” instead of being prohibited. 

  • With a net worth of at least $30 million and an annual salary of $30 million as of 2022, it is evident that Brian Moynihan has profited immensely from his climate crimes. He also owns a Gulfstream G-550 private jet and partly owns two Dassault Falcon 2000 and two Hawker Beechcraft's Hawker 900XP jets.

    In early June 2024, the Financial Health Network awarded Moynihan the “2024 Financial Health Visionary Award.” In January 2023, Fortune named Brian Moynihan the “king of stakeholder capitalism,” taking the crown from BlackRock’s Larry Fink.


    Moynihan and his wife, Susan, are active philanthropists. Their top recipients include: 

    • Undisclosed amounts to Brown University in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2020

    • Undisclosed amount to Foundation for MetroWest in 2010

    • $1,000+ to Hospice & Palliative Care Charlotte Region in 2008 

    • $10,000+ to Joslin Diabetes Center in 2013 & 2014

    • $1,000+ to Nativity School of Worchester in 2009

    • United Way of Central Carolinas 

      • 2015 - $20,000+

      • 2014 - $20,000+

      • 2013 - $10,000+ 

  • Since the Paris Agreement of 2016, Bank of America has financed $333,158.86 million USD to the fossil fuel industry. Since 2016, the top fossil fuel recipients of Bank of America dollars are ExxonMobil Corp ($13,724.90 million), Occidental Petroleum Corp ($11,698.43 million), and Enbridge Inc ($7,203.00 million). Bank of America’s complete financing data can be found at Banking on Climate Chaos. 

  • On April 23, 2024, the day before the bank’s annual shareholder meeting, protestors gathered outside Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina to call out Bank of America’s climate and human rights violations. Following this action, the bank’s board of directors discussed pressing questions on the bank’s continued financing of thermal coal and arctic drilling. At the meeting, the board voted on two climate-related proposals – one about disclosing its clean energy financing ratio and another about climate lobbying – but neither passed. Despite not passing, each motion received over 25 percent support, which is still significant; the board is dissatisfied with the bank’s lack of transparency, and eventually (with enough pressure) the bank will need to meet its shareholders’ demands. 

    In April 2024, Brown University’s Sunrise chapter made calls for the University to cut social and financial ties with the fossil fuel industry. A student presented also called out Moynihan’s impending role as chancellor, saying, “If the person who is in charge of the Corporation is so deeply tied to the fossil fuel industry and is personally invested in those financial ties, [there would be a] huge problem in terms of wanting to move Brown in the direction of dissociating and divesting from fossil fuels.” In response, Brian Clark, a University Spokesperson, wrote to the Brown Daily Herald: “The University’s leadership shared with the Brown community in March 2020 that the Brown University Investment Office had made the decision to halt investments in fossil fuel extraction companies. This has not shifted or changed. Brown remains firmly committed to confronting the realities of climate change.” He did not address Moynihan’s ties to the fossil fuel industry. 

    On January 25, 2024, Climate Defiance confronted Brian Moynihan at the Wellesley Rotary Club. Climate Defiance activist Izzi Graj said, “Brian Moynihan is one of the top five funders of fossil fuels causing the climate crisis... Brian, you’re killing us, and turning a blind eye to devastating suffering.” Climate Defiance posted footage from the action on their Instagram, describing his response to the confrontation: “He twiddled his thumbs. So we chased him off stage, then downstairs into the back office, where he cowered & called the cops. Classic move, oil boy.” 

    Again, on May 27, Climate Defiance interrupted Brown’s graduation to confront the trustees who had just elected Brian Moynihan as Brown’s next chancellor. Climate Defiance’s Instagram post specifically calls out Moynihan’s role in lending $999,000,000 to Enbridge (which just finished work on its tar sands oil pipeline through Indigenous lands) and $814,000,000 to ConocoPhillips (which is constructing the Willow Project pipeline in Alaska). 

    • “We talk about delivering on the genius of the “and”, which is we have to deliver for our shareholders and for society.” –Moynihan, 2022

    • “I’ve been asked if I’m a capitalist at congressional hearings and things like that. The answer is, absolutely.” –Moynihan, 2022

    • “The binary decision of invest-not invest, lend-not lend, do business with or not do business with — that doesn’t change the behavior of those companies. You want those companies to declare net zero, put a plan on the table. Then society wants to hold them accountable.” –Moynihan, 2022

Connections within the Polluter Industrial Complex

What is the Polluter Industrial Complex?

  • Bank of America primarily works with the PR firm Omnicom, which is featured on Clean Creative’s F-List. Omnicom has 39 contracts with fossil fuel companies in 2022 and 2023 including ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, TotalEnergies, and others. Despite working with these high-carbon clients, Omnicom was – proudly and hypocritically – a founding member of Ad Net Zero. 

    Bank of America has been accused of greenwashing its public image, making bold promises it has not kept. For example, the bank touted a climate-forward pledge to stop financing new coal mines, only to renege on this commitment. Brian Moynihan has pushed an ESG agenda and advocated for internal taxes on companies’ carbon usage, and Bank of America has been called out for having a net-zero pledge while continuing to finance the fossil fuel industry.

  • LobbyMap gave Bank of America a grade of C, saying that Bank of America publicly supports IPCC climate science and has limited engagement on climate policy. The bank supported a carbon tax in its 2023 Environmental and Social Risk Policy framework. Brian Moynihan has supported an energy transition but continues to finance fossil fuel companies. 

  • Fifteen conservative states have recently claimed that Bank of America is discriminating against fossil fuel companies among other more “conservative” industries like gun manufacturing and religious groups. The Attorney General of Virginia put out a statement on April 16, 2024, saying: “Bank of America’s blatant discrimination against account holders whose political and religious ideologies don’t align with its own is appalling and un-American. As Attorney General, I will protect the constitutional liberties of all Virginians.” This conservative pushback by the Attorney General and other conservatives in Congress led Bank of America to rescind its previous pledge to stop financing coal. 

  • Bank of America has its own policy think tank called the Bank of America Institute, with work primarily focused on economics and banking-related issues. 

  • Brian Moynihan was recently selected as Brown Corporation’s 22nd chancellor, effective July 2024. Brown Corporation is responsible for the long-term planning of the university as well as setting the budget, tuition amounts, and other strategic long-term decisions. Brian Moynihan has been a member of Brown Corporation since 2010, with six years as a trustee and eight years on the Board of Fellows. He also served on the Board of Governors of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

  • Brian Moynihan is one of the guardians of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism with The Vatican. In this role, Brian Moynihan allegedly supports the Council’s fundamental values, including: “Fairness across generations so that one generation does not overburden the planet or realize near-term benefits that incur long-term costs, at the cost of future generations.”The Council’s website also states that “the Council members will strive to contribute to a system that is: … Sustainable – where incentives aligned across generations and the main actors take a long-term perspective. This means considering the future impact of actions taken today on a broad set of stakeholders and on our planet.” Brian Moynihan is not upholding these commitments as a Council member. 

    In October of 2023, The Pope himself stated: “To the powerful, I can only repeat this question: ‘What would induce anyone, at this stage, to hold on to power, only to be remembered for their inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary to do so?”