The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has delayed its consultation into the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) until the autumn.
The regulator said it wanted to “take account of other international policy initiatives and ensure stakeholder have time to consider these issues”.
No details though were provided by the FCA about which international policy initiatives or stakeholders were the drivers behind the decision to postpone the consultation to the autumn.
The watchdog said, “We had aimed to consult in Q2 of 2022. We are now planning on consulting in the autumn, to allow us to take account of other international policy initiatives and ensure stakeholders have time to consider these issues.”
THE SDRs, which have been dubbed the UK’s answer to the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), aims to create an integrated and streamlined framework that brings together sustainability-related reporting requirements under one roof for corporates and financial institutions.
They were developed by HM Treasury, the Department for Business and the Department for Work and Pensions to cover “the next step in putting the UK’s finance sector in a better position to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement”, according to briefing papers
Earlier this year, the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association had called on the FCA to carry out further work on the feasibility of single, harmonised set of sustainable investing disclosures, warning that a “lack of clarity” would lead to delays in implementation.
This is not the first time the regulation has experienced a change to its plans.
In May, ministers made a last minute decision to withdraw SDR from the Financial Service and Markets Bill, where previously it had been touted to feature in the Queen’s Speech.
The FCA had already committed to using the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), the IFRS framework that will inform companies on how to disclose on sustainability and climate change credentials, as a baseline.
It is expected that this will be at the end of the year as the IFRS invited feedback for two proposed standards in March.
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