The roadmap introduces sustainability disclosure requirements for UK companies and reveals further developments in relation to a UK Green Taxonomy.

By David Berman, Paul A. Davies, Nicola Higgs, Michael D. Green, Anne Mainwaring, and James Bee

On 18 October 2021, the UK government released a report titled “Greening Finance: Roadmap to Sustainable Investing” (the Roadmap), which is intended to encourage UK businesses and investors to have regard to climate and other environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in their decision-making processes. The Roadmap follows the government’s 2019 Green Finance Strategy, which set out a suite of policies to assist in aligning UK financial flows with a low-carbon planet.

The government states that it views the task of “greening the financial system”[1] as composed of three fundamental phases. The Roadmap addresses the first phase: informing investors and consumers and addressing the information gap in relation to environmental and sustainability  issues between corporates and investors.[2] Notably, the Roadmap also introduces sustainability disclosure requirements (SDR) for UK companies and reveals further developments in relation to the UK Green Taxonomy (Taxonomy). In addition, the Roadmap identifies proposed timeframes for further developments on each of these topics.

Discussion Paper opens debate on potential new rules to improve diversity in financial services.

By Rob Moulton, David Berman, Paul Davies, and Charlotte Collins

On 7 July 2021, the FCA, the PRA, and the Bank of England published a joint Discussion Paper on diversity and inclusion in the financial sector. The regulators, in particular the FCA, have been focused on diversity and inclusion as regulatory issues for some time. According to the regulators, research shows there is a positive correlation between increased diversity and inclusion and better outcomes in risk management, conduct, culture, and innovation. Therefore, improving diversity and inclusion in financial services is seen as tying in closely with the regulators’ objectives. In the Discussion Paper, the regulators consider diversity and inclusion not only in terms of how a firm is run internally, but also how the firm serves its customers.