Donating to the Trump-Pence ticket may be more trouble than it’s worth – this seems to be the new memo for Wall Street.

After Credit Suisse Group AG and Northern Trust Corp., it was the turn of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to issue warning or restricting employees about political donations to avoid violating the federal pay-to-play rule. Since Republican nominee Donald Trump chose Indiana Governor Mike Pence, the de facto head of the state’s public pension, as his running mate, donations to the presidential race has become complicated by the rule meant to prevent firms and employees from making contributions as a quid pro quo for winning business.

According to retirement plan documents, the 50 large asset managers including BlackRock Inc., Blackstone Group LP and Bridgewater Associates are included in the Indiana system functioning. According to the rule, employees or firms could possibly face other penalties and will likely have to forgo compensation from Indiana for the next two years if they donate to the Trump campaign.

In addition to state or local officials bidding for federal office, Goldman Sachs banned all of its partners from making contributions to state and local candidates running for office. As of Sept. 1, according to an Aug. 29 internal memo sent to partners, every partner is considered a “restricted person” and are prohibited making campaign gifts to those candidates or officials or from engaging in political activities.

“The policy change is meant to prevent inadvertently violating pay-to-play rules, particularly the look-back provision, when partners transition into roles covered by these rules. The penalties for failing to comply with these rules can be severe and include fines and a ban on the firm from doing business with government clients in a particular jurisdiction for a period of at least two years,” the New York-based firm said in the memo.

According to a person with knowledge of the matter, employees of Zurich-based Credit Suisse were asked to notify compliance before making any contributions to the Trump-Pence campaign in a memo sent in July. The source said that any donations need to be cleared beforehand.

The Trump-Pence ticket triggers the pay-to-play rule and that they should be careful not to violate it, certain employees at Northern Trust, which is based in Chicago, were warned in an e-mail.

There were no comments from Spokespeople for Credit Suisse, Northern Trust as well as Bridgewater Associates, King Street Capital Management and Davidson Kempner Capital Management, which are among the firms that manage money for Indiana’s retirement plan.

Firms were advised to “proceed with the highest level of caution before they, or their covered associates, donate to the Trump/Pence ticket,” particularly if they work with the Indiana system by ACA Compliance Group, which advises firms including large hedge funds.

“Even inadvertent violations of the rule can prohibit investment advisers from providing services for compensation for a period of two years,” the group said in the notice that was circulated to funds. Municipal advisers and swap dealers are also bound by similar rules.

A mainstay of support for Republican presidential and congressional candidates has been the financial industry.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which studies campaign finance, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor’s presidential campaign in 2012, was given $1 million by Bottom of Form

Goldman Sachs’s employees and the company’s political action committee and have contributed $1.4 million to Republican candidates in 2016. Trump has received nothing from the PAC and a total $3,200 from the Goldman Sachs employees.

(Adapted from Bloomberg)

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