Category: 3. Business

The NEA held the Bridging Law and Technology: International Workshop for the Deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) from 8-10 December 2025 in Stockholm, Sweden. Co-organised with the Government of Sweden, the event brought together more than 200 legal, technical and policy experts to discuss the unique legal challenges posed by advancements in small modular, transportable, maritime, and generation IV reactors and identify potential paths forward.

The workshop was structured into five thematic sessions, combining keynote addresses, panel discussions and interactive Q&A segments. Focusing on authorising SMR designs, SMR pre-licensing and licensing challenges, factory manufacturing, mobile reactors and transportation, maritime applications, and fuel cycle, waste management and decommissioning, high-level speakers set the tone by emphasising the importance of bridging legal frameworks with technological innovation. Panels featured experts from governments, regulatory bodies, industry and academia, who discussed practical approaches to licensing SMRs, managing liability, and fostering international co-operation. Using a highly interactive format, every participant was encouraged to contribute their diverse expertise to directly shape the discussions and outcomes. The exchanges underscored the urgency of collaborative solutions and highlighted best practices from member countries.

 

In her opening remarks, Maja Lundbäck, State Secretary to Minister for Energy, Business and Industry Ebba Busch, Government of Sweden, highlighted the role of nuclear energy in ensuring energy security and supply in Sweden. “Access to energy at reasonable prices when and where it is needed is a democratic issue and necessary for building a sustainable society,” she noted. “Sweden is back when it comes to nuclear power.”

 

Maja Lundbäck, State Secretary to Minister for Energy, Business and Industry Ebba Busch, Government of Sweden

Daniel Westlén, State Secretary to Minister for Climate and the Environment Romina Pourmokhtari, shed light on the latest regulatory developments in Sweden, noting that “The government is reviewing all legislation related to nuclear power to enable the deployment of new reactors.”

Kimberly Sexton Nick, Head of the NEA Division of Nuclear Law, noted in her welcome remarks that “Legal and regulatory issues cannot be addressed in a vacuum, only by lawyers or only by technical experts or only by policymakers. The walls separating law, policy and technical expertise must be removed and only through sustained and committed communication and collaboration can those in the nuclear field chart a path forward.”

 

Daniel Westlén, State Secretary to Minister for Climate and the Environment Romina Pourmokhtari, and Kimberly Sexton Nick, Head of the NEA Division of Nuclear Law

Paul Bowden, the workshop moderator, set the tone stating that “The challenges associated with SMR deployment cannot be solved only with national solutions. The final goal of this workshop is to move beyond our own borders to see transnational opportunities and potential international approaches to problem solving.”

   

The workshop featured multiple panel discussions with experts from industry, government, academia and law fields

 

Fireside chat with Elena Santer, Secretary for the Espoo Convention and the SEA Protocol, UNECE, moderated by Paul Bowden

Preparatory work

In the months leading up to the workshop, extensive preparatory efforts were undertaken to ensure meaningful dialogue and actionable outcomes. Central to this process were the thematic working groups, which convened virtually in September, October, and November. These groups were led by co-chairs representing the NEA’s standing technical committees and they provided participants with early engagement opportunities, fostering collaboration across jurisdictions and disciplines. Their mandate included identifying key challenges, drafting targeted questions, and developing discussion papers summarising legal and technical frameworks relevant to SMR deployment.

Ultimately, the working groups produced comprehensive background papers that served as the foundation for workshop discussions. These documents synthesised survey results, national presentations, and group deliberations, highlighting critical issues such as the need to adapt existing frameworks (often built for large light water reactors) to advanced designs, while keeping predictability and safety outcomes front and centre. They also explored opportunities for international collaboration, including on issues related to manufacturing, transport and maritime regimes. These papers were instrumental in aligning participants on shared objectives and ensuring informed, constructive exchanges during the workshop.

Looking ahead: From dialogue to action

The insights generated during the workshop will inform future NEA initiatives aimed at supporting member countries in navigating legal and technical challenges associated with SMRs. While working group products remain restricted to participants until the official publication of the workshop proceedings in 2026, the collaborative spirit and knowledge exchange fostered through this process mark a significant step toward cross-border opportunities for innovative solutions. The NEA remains committed to facilitating these conversations and driving progress in nuclear law and technology.

Orange Money Group and Visa announce a strategic partnership aimed at accelerating online payments and democratizing access to financial services across Africa and the Middle East.

Already successfully deployed in Botswana, Madagascar, and Jordan, where the partnership is renewed, the virtual visa card has been recently launched by Orange Money Côte d’Ivoire. This launch was a success and perfectly illustrates our shared vision with Visa for a more inclusive and accessible financial ecosystem.  

This partnership marks a new milestone in the shared ambition of the two companies: to provide millions of users with a simple, secure, and internationally recognized payment solution.

Building on the success in these countries, it will be gradually rolled out to new markets such as Guinea, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Directly accessible from the Max it app, the Orange Money Visa virtual card allows users to instantly create a card that can be funded anytime from their Orange Money account, enabling secure online payments on local and international websites. A physical card will also be made available at authorized Orange Money points of sale at a later stage.

Orange Money is proud to partner with Visa, given its global expertise in secure digital payments and its extensive international acceptance network—ensuring Orange Money users enjoy a seamless and trusted payment experience wherever they are.

For Orange Money, this partnership is fully aligned with its mission to promote financial inclusion—simplifying access to digital services and empowering everyone to participate fully in the digital economy, regardless of their country or device.

Thierry Millet, CEO, Orange Money Group comments: “Thanks to Orange Money, our 45 million customers can make everyday payments at millions of physical retail locations and with online merchants in their country. Whether they are individuals or entrepreneurs, they can now create their virtual Visa card in just a few seconds and make international online payments across the Visa network. This is the first step in this strategic partnership, which will help make Orange Money a widely accepted payment method, from major online platforms to local neighborhood merchants.”

Ismahill Diaby, Vice-President, General Manager – Western and Central Francophone & Lusophone Africa, Visa comments: “We’re excited to partner with Orange Money to bring the advantages of the digital economy to millions of people across Africa. By combining Visa’s trusted technology with Orange Money’s local reach, this partnership offers a simple, secure way for more people and small businesses to pay online—helping them participate confidently in everyday commerce.”

With over 173 million customers and 45 million active accounts across 17 countries in Africa, Orange continues to drive digital and financial transformation across the continent, supported by Visa’s trusted technology.

 

About Orange Money Group
Orange Money, a pioneering solution for financial inclusion, is used every month by more than 45 million people across 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Orange Money Group, in coordination with local Orange Money entities and Orange Bank Africa, is responsible for defining the mobile financial services strategy for the Middle East and Africa region. It provides local entities with operational support to help them accelerate their growth, establish new partnerships, support their compliance plans, and develop new value-added activities that meet market expectations.

About Orange Middle-East and Africa (OMEA)
Orange is present in 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East and has 173 million customers at 30 november 2025. With 7.7 billion euros of revenues in 2024, Orange MEA is the first growth area in the Orange group. Orange Money, its flagship mobile-based money transfer and financial services offer is available in 17 countries and has more than 100 million customers. Orange, multi-services operator, key partner of the digital transformation provides its expertise to support the development of new digital services in Africa and the Middle East.

About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities in more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling people, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, lift everyone everywhere, and we see access as fundamental to the future of the movement of money. Find out more about Visa.com.

Islamabad: Pakistan is set to roll out a locally developed secure messaging app, “Beep,” for government employees in the coming months, local media reported on Wednesday.

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecom was informed on Tuesday that the messaging app inspired by the Chinese social media platform WeChat is almost ready for launch and is expected to meet the project deadline of June 30, 2026, the Dawn newspaper reported.

National Information Technology Board (NITB) Chief Executive Faisal Iqbal Ratyal said that “Beep” had been locally developed and certified by relevant government agencies for official use, such as the National Computer Emergency Response Team (NCERT), which has formally cleared the application for official use.

The Standing Committee Chairman, Syed Aminul Haque, directed the NITB to ensure the timely rollout of the application.

“The purpose of launching Beep is to provide a secure messaging platform for public sector employees nationwide,” Ratyal told the committee. He added the launch would take place in a phased manner, starting with federal ministries and associated departments.

The app will be rolled out in the next two months and will be integrated with Pakistan’s federal e-Office system, enabling secure messaging, document sharing and workflow coordination within government institutions.

According to the NITB, Beep will offer end-to-end encryption for text messages as well as video calls used by government officials.

Ratyal stressed that additional security features had been incorporated to address the concerns raised by the committee members amid recent global incidents that underscored vulnerabilities in digital platforms regarding data security and the protection of official communications.

Beep’s encryption standards had been strengthened to make it suitable for sensitive discussions, Ratyal added.

The platform would operate on a usage-based fee model, and efforts were underway to make it financially self-sustaining over time, said the NITB chief.

Officials said Beep’s servers would be based in Pakistan, with stricter security safeguards inspired by WeChat, while noting that although WhatsApp is a widely used platform for voice calls, video calls and media sharing, its data servers are located outside the country.

The committee was also briefed that the federal e-Office system had been introduced to reduce paperwork and improve transparency, and that integrating Beep was expected to strengthen internal coordination and reduce operational risks.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Australia’s share market has drifted lower for a third session, with a rally in mining stocks unable to ballast weakness across all other sectors.

The S&P/ASX200 fell 19.2 points on Wednesday, down 0.22 per cent, to 8,579.7, as the broader All Ordinaries lost 12.3 points, or 0.14 per cent, to 8,868.3.

Raw materials was the only winner of 11 local sectors, up 1.6 per cent as gold stocks surged, while energy, financials, health care, consumer staples and IT stocks dragged the bourse lower.

The Australian dollar was buying 66.16 US cents, down from 66.33 US cents on Tuesday at 5pm as the US dollar appreciated against the major currencies.

Prudential supervisors are increasingly considering how financial institutions can use their strategic transition plans to inform assessments of resilience, governance and financial stability—which, in turn, can help institutions evaluate their exposures to climate-related risks, and manage the financial implications of the transition.

While prudential supervision remains focused on safety and soundness, climate change and environmental degradation are increasingly recognized as drivers of traditional financial risks, including credit, market and operational risk. In this context, supervisors are seeking to draw on transition plans to better understand how institutions are identifying, managing and mitigating transition-related risks, with several going further by requiring transition plans to address climate-related financial risks within prudential frameworks.

This article draws on key insights from the Taskforce on Net Zero Policy’s COP30 report, Policy Matters: From Pledges to Delivery – A Decade After Paris,¹ to highlight emerging supervisory approaches and trends for financial institutions navigating evolving prudential expectations. It includes examples of how prudential supervisors in different countries and regions are approaching transition plans, and discusses implications of transition planning for banks’ risk management and governance.

Transition plans in prudential supervision: emerging supervisory perspectives

Supervisory guidance is increasingly clarifying how transition plans, as strategic documents, can be used to inform forward-looking prudential risk assessment. The 2024 Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) Transition Plan Package, developed by central banks and supervisors, discusses how transition plans can support risk management and microprudential supervision. Transition plans² can serve multiple purposes, including identifying and managing financial risks, explaining decarbonization strategies, supporting transition finance, and enabling alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

NGFS highlights transition plans as a key input into assessing whether a bank’s risk management framework can manage risks embedded in its strategy. This underscores the need for banks to develop more integrated data systems, governance arrangements that embed climate objectives across institutions, and scenario approaches that support both strategic planning and supervisory risk assessment. As supervisory practices evolve, transition plans may also inform assessments of governance, risk appetite and business model sustainability, with potential implications for supervisory assessments and capital adequacy (Basel Framework Pillar 2) considerations.

As prudential supervisory approaches continue to evolve, discussions are beginning to broaden to consider how climate physical risk management and, consequently, climate adaptation and resilience may be reflected within transition plans. While mitigation remains central, incorporating adaptation measures over time may help strengthen institutional resilience and financial stability, and simultaneously highlight investment opportunities linked to risk reduction and preparedness.

Examples of regional and national prudential transition plans

European Union
The EU has incorporated climate and environmental risks into prudential supervision through the EU’s Capital Requirements Regulation and Capital Requirements Directive (CRRIII & CRD VI) (in effect from January 2026). The European Banking Authority (EBA) 2025 guidelines on the management of ESG risks require banks to identify and manage short- and long-term ESG risks and to monitor both backward- and forward-looking indicators, including financed emissions. Supported by the latest European Central Bank (ECB) supervisory priorities, under CRD VI article 76, banks must also produce prudential transition plans focused on risk management rather than emissions targets, distinguishing them from but connected to from those reported under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires institutions to report on the existence and key features of their transition plans, if developed.³

United Kingdom
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) published a supervisory statement setting expectations for managing climate-related financial risks and clarifies how prudential principles such as proportionality, governance and forward-looking risk management apply. The PRA’s approach is aligned with the UK government policy on transition planning, emphasizing coherence between firms’ strategy, disclosures and prudential risk management, yet it does not introduce requirement to develop a transition plan.

Brazil
The Brazilian Central Bank has proposed expanding the mandatory Social, Environmental and Climate Risks and Opportunities Report (GRSAC) to align with the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS)’s voluntary climate disclosure framework and complement International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. Expected to be adopted in 2026, the proposal strengthens and standardizes quantitative disclosures on transition and physical risks, risk management practices and voluntary commitments, while extending requirements to smaller institutions.

Looking ahead: Towards greater consistency and interoperability

Institutions that embed climate strategy within risk management frameworks are likely to be better positioned to meet evolving supervisory expectations. Prudential requirements are raising baseline expectations for transition plan quality and, in doing so, supporting system-level resilience. As supervisors make more systematic use of transition plans within their supervisory toolkits, continued progress on methodologies, reporting standards and scenario analysis will be essential to ensure these plans are decision-useful for both financial institutions and supervisory authorities.

While the value of transition plans in prudential supervision is increasingly recognized, application of these plans remains at an early stage, with differences in scope, assumptions and assurance practices limiting comparability, particularly for internationally active banks. In this context, international developments, including the BCBS voluntary framework on climate-related financial risk disclosures, can act as an important global reference point for supervisors.

Looking ahead, to maximize the decision-usefulness and comparability of transition plans across jurisdictions, supervisory practice could focus on enhanced interoperability; clearer linkages between data, methodologies and supervisory use cases; and more consistent integration of transition plans into risk management and prudential oversight. UNEP FI continues to support stakeholders in navigating this evolution through initiatives such as its Regulatory Implementation Support Programme and policy engagement through NGFS and the Taskforce on Net Zero Policy. UNEP FI has also recently published its Guide to Transition Plans for Banks and works with global standard setters to build alignment on comparability.

 

[1] UNEP FI participates in the Taskforce.
[2] The NGFS and EBA distinguish between transition planning—the internal process of developing long-term climate strategies—and transition plans, the outward-facing documents shared with regulators, investors and other stakeholders.
[3] As of the publication of this article, the final position (Omnibus simplification package) on the provisions on transition plans within CSRD has not yet been approved.

 

Sources: 
Banco Central do Brasil (2025): Public Consultation 127, Disclosure of metrics in the Social, Environmental, and Climate  
Bank of England (2025): Supervisory statement 5/25  
Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (2025): A framework for the voluntary disclosure of climate-related financial risks 
European Commission, CSRD 
European Banking Authority (2025): Final Guidelines on the management of ESG risks 
European Central Bank (2025): Supervisory priorities 2026-28 
NGFS (2025): Integrating Adaptation and Resilience into Transition plans 
NGFS (2024): Credible Transition Plans: The micro-prudential perspective 

 

Additional Resources:  
Bank of England (2025): CP10/25 – Enhancing banks’ and insurers’ approaches to managing climate-related risks 
Financial Stability Board (2025): The Relevance of Transition Plans for Financial Stability 
Dikau et al. (2024): Prudential net zero transition plans: the potential of a new regulatory instrument 
Grantham Research Institute (2022): Net zero transition plans: a supervisory playbook for prudential authorities 
NGFS (2025): Interactions between climate scenario analysis and Transition plans 
NGS (2025):Target setting and Transition plans 
NGFS (2023): Stocktake on Financial Institutions’ Transition Plans and their Relevance to Micro-prudential Authorities 
UNEP FI (2025): Guide to Transition Plans for Bank 
UNEP FI (2021): Good Practice Guide to Climate Stress Testing