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Rachel Lowe

Rachel E. Lowe is a special regulatory counsel in the Corporate Department and a member of the Private Investment Funds Group.

Rachel advises on financial services regulation specializing in sustainable finance and ESG regulation. She has particular expertise in drafting and advising on the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and the Taxonomy Regulation. Rachel has also supported with EU MiFID and AIFMD sustainability updates for clients, including from a governance and organizational perspective, as well as providing drafting and training support. She also advises on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), including analysis of its applicability for large international group structures.

From a UK perspective, Rachel supports clients with the TCFD-related requirements in the Financial Conduct Authority’s ESG Sourcebook and is increasingly engaged on the UK’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR).

More broadly, Rachel has worked with litigation colleagues to assist clients with understanding and mitigating greenwashing-related legal and regulatory risk.

On 11 March 2025, the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) published a statement clarifying that their rules, including with regards to sustainability, do not prevent investment in or financing of defence companies.  The FCA confirmed that it is at the discretion of investors or lenders as to whether they provide capital to defence

Background

On 5 March 2025, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published the findings of its multi-firm review of valuation processes for private market assets (the “Review”). The Review covered firms operating in range of private asset classes, including: venture capital, infrastructure (equity and debt), private equity and private debt.

Welcome to the Regulation Round Up, a regular bulletin highlighting the latest developments in UK and EU financial services regulation.

Key developments in February 2025:

28 February

FCA Handbook Changes: The Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published Handbook Notice 127, which sets out changes to the FCA Handbook made by the FCA board on