The REP Wrap: UK to publish reporting standards in February

The UK government plans to publish its final Sustainability Reporting Standards next month. According to Corporate Disclosures, a representative for the Department for Business and Trade said it was still processing feedback and intended to release the final standards by the end of February. After that, it’s expected that the Financial Conduct Authority will consult on making the rules mandatory for listed companies.

The EU’s competition commissioner has urged her colleagues not to participate in a regulatory “race to the bottom” in the face of pressure from the US. Teresa Ribera said it was “not by chance that it’s the green and digital agendas that are under threat” in an interview with the Financial Times. “They are the main drivers of competitiveness,” argued the European Commission’s second-in-command, who is responsible for steering the bloc’s competitiveness and climate agendas.

Investor appetite for green debt is still booming, according to recent research from Bloomberg Intelligence. The data showed global green bond and loan issuance reached a record $947bn in 2025, despite a clampdown on sustainable finance in the US and elsewhere.

Elsewhere, Bloomberg also found banks were making more money by financing green projects than by working with fossil fuel companies, for the fourth consecutive year. Lenders generated some $3.7bn of revenue from underwriting climate-related debt in 2025, compared with around $2.9bn from oil, gas and coal, according to the data.

Hong Kong’s Accounting and Financial Reporting Council has launched a consultation on a planned regulatory regime for sustainability assurance. The proposal is that all companies subject to mandatory sustainability reporting should also be required to get those reports independently assured, with limited assurance rules being phased in.

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission has updated its rules to mandate dedicated chapters on sustainability-related financial information in some listed companies’ annual reports. The chapters must be approved by the board of directors. The development, which also sees the publication of key provisions for sustainability reporting, is part of Taiwan’s commitment to adopt ISSB-style disclosure standards.

Taiwanese bicycle maker Giant has completed all compensation payments to migrant workers after US authorities identified “forced labour indicators” in its business. The company’s ‘corrective action plan’ is estimated to have cost it around $3-4m, and it hopes it will be sufficient to get a Withhold Release Order removed by US Customs and Border Protection.