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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 7 November 2025, the European Commission published a call for evidence on proposals to amend the European Union’s Taxonomy legislation. In particular, the call is in relation to two delegated regulations amending the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act ((EU) 2021/2139, the “Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act”) and the Taxonomy Environmental Delegated Act ((EU) 2023/2486

On 13 November 2025, the European Parliament (“Parliament”) adopted its negotiating position on the review of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”), as part of the European Union’s (“EU”) broader simplification agenda for companies in the so-called “Omnibus”. The Parliament’s position raises the company-size thresholds for entities in scope

Welcome to the FinReg Monthly Update, a regular bulletin highlighting the latest developments in UK and EU financial services regulation.

Key developments in October 2025:

Financial Advice / Wealth Management

31 October – FCA Consolidation Review: The UK Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published its findings following a multi-firm review of consolidation in the

Overview

The UKs Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) today published its multi-firm review of consolidation across the UK financial advice and wealth management sector.

For private equity sponsors, this is the clearest statement yet of how the regulator intends to supervise buy-and-build models. The FCA has not introduced new rules, but it has drawn a line

With six months to go, fund managers should be ramping up their preparations for complying with the legislative changes to EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (“AIFMD”), commonly referred to as “AIFMD 2.0”, which will come into effect on 16 April 2026. The majority of the changes will apply to EU authorised alternative investment fund

On October 13, 2025, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (“FCDO”), the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) and His Majesty’s Treasury (“HM Treasury”) confirmed that from January 28, 2026, the UK Sanctions List (“UKSL”) will be the single official source of United Kingdom (UK) sanctions designations.