Legal & Regulatory News

UK Financial Conduct Authority gives speech setting out its expectations on ESG

On 24 September 2021, the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a speech setting out its expectations in relation to ESG.

The FCA is expecting climate change to form a critical part of how firms do business and has made clear that this will become a more prominent part of the FCA's supervisory engagement strategy, informing firms that they should expect greater scrutiny on these issues.

Firms will also be expected to look inwards at the culture of their business to determine methods through which they can build a greater diversity in the next generation of employees, with emphasis on the increased collecting and monitoring of diversity data.

The FCA speech also explores the impact of Covid-19 and the prevalence of 'hybrid-working', looking at benefits and drawbacks which will be monitored moving forwards by the FCA.

Click here to access a transcript of the speech.