More than 150 New York City business leaders are urging President Trump to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election and allow for a transition of power to begin for the sake of the U.S. democracy.

Trump’s protracted battle against the presidential election results – and challenging of vote counts in several states – is damaging to the nation’s economy and democracy amid the raging coronavirus pandemic, write 164 business and civic leaders Monday in an open letter.

A few hours after the letter landed, so did another one, this from Emily Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, to Biden in which she said she would allow the president-elect to begin his official transition.

That action was needed because “our national interest and respect for the integrity of our democratic process requires that … a proper transition can begin,” read the letter from the New York City signees, which included CEOs and presidents of companies such as AIG, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Bank, Mastercard, and Visa.