Financial Regulation

9 posts

The SEC’s Final Climate Disclosure Rule: Pathways for Improving the “Floor”

In the March 6th vote to approve the SEC’s final climate disclosure rule, the Commissioners split along party lines, with the rule passing by a 3-2 vote. It received a scathing review from Commissioners Peirce and Uyeda, both of whom suggested that the SEC should have re-proposed a new rule, […]

The SEC’s Final Climate Disclosure Rule: Key Requirements, and the Materiality Threshold

Nearly two years and 24,000 public comments after its proposal, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its final climate disclosure rule last week, formally titled “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors.” The rule expands public companies’ disclosure requirements to include certain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data […]

The SEC’s Final Climate Disclosure Rule Must Respond to Emerging Legal Risks

It has been more than a year and a half since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed its climate-related disclosure rule. In the interim, lawsuits in the ESG and regulatory space have constricted the SEC’s path to promulgating a final rule that will survive judicial review. This blog post […]

Banking Regulators Act in the Face of Headwinds to Address Climate Risk

President Biden’s May 2021 Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk is showing results. While the financial world is still waiting for key climate-related rules from several financial regulators, including the Security Exchange Commission (SEC), there has been some forward progress in recent weeks. The new regulations released by a group […]

New Report Highlights the Complex Intersection of Antitrust Law and Sustainability Goals

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment have released a new report: Antitrust and Sustainability: A Landscape Analysis. The report gives an overview of the broad purview of antitrust law, and the myriad and complex ways in which it intersects with and affects […]

Antitrust Reading List: Competitor Collaborations and Sustainability

Reader’s Note: The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law (Sabin Center) are conducting a Landscape Analysis of Antitrust and Sustainability to identify the boundaries of competition and collaboration in markets as they impact non-economic benefits, particularly with respect to sustainability initiatives. In […]

The Slippery Notion of Boycotts in the Anti-ESG Movement

Antitrust – a previously dormant area of law and federal enforcement – has reached a new zenith in recent years. While progressives aim to reinvigorate the anti-monopoly origins of antitrust, some Republicans are weaponizing antitrust in service of their narrative and legislative anti-ESG campaigns. Financial institution coalitions focused on responding […]

Reckoning with risk: Recent developments in climate and U.S. financial regulation

Since President Biden took office in January 2021, his administration has been proactive in its efforts to fulfill his campaign promise to place climate issues at the forefront of his presidential agenda. Two executive orders, Executive Orders (EOs) 13990 and 14008, both issued within a week of  President Biden’s inauguration, […]