Planning for Sector-Specific Sustainability Reporting Standards

Although for now attention is on the European sustainability reporting measures that are already in place, particularly the Green Asset Ratio, from 2026 there will be new banking sector-specific sustainability reporting standards that many European lessors will be required to use.  

At a European level, these are being developed by the European Financial Reporting Group (EFRAG), and equivalent international standards are being developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Both EFRAG and ISSB are being supported by the Amsterdam-based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). 

Leaseurope, together with the United States Equipment Leasing and Financing Association (ELFA), met with the GRI in December. We emphasised the role of the leasing industry in supporting transition finance, by helping firms to invest in assets that will improve their sustainability over time. 

We pointed out that the European Commission expects transition finance to be substantially more significant than green finance over the short to medium-term. We called for new sector-specific reporting standards that cover both transition and green finance.  

We hope that the new sustainability accounting standards will allow lessors to report a far larger proportion of their books as contributing to sustainability goals, compared to the existing sustainability reporting measures that are restricted to a very narrow range of EU taxonomy-eligible investments. 

We followed up by developing a research paper setting out the role of leasing in enabling firms to transition to a more climate-natural and sustainable European economy (available here). We submitted this evidence in March to GRI and EFRAG, as well as sharing it widely with other policy makers in Europe.  

In March Borislav Todorov, CEO of Money Lease EAD in Bulgaria was appointed to FRAG’s Banking Advisory Panel that will advise EFRAG’s Sustainability Reporting Technical Expert Group on the development of the banking sector-specific sustainability reporting standard. This followed Leaseurope’s call for member associations to help identify candidates, and our support for Borislav’s nomination.