NORTHBROOK, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 17, 2025--
UL Solutions (NYSE: ULS), a global leader in applied safety science, is now collaborating with Fujitsu, a leading Japanese multinational company that provides IT services, solutions and technology, to assist Japanese companies in navigating and adhering to Japan's newly developed climate reporting standards.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250708109631/en/
This alliance combines UL Solutions’ ULTRUS software portfolio, a unified digital platform designed to streamline regulatory, supply chain and sustainability management, with Fujitsu’s deep local market expertise and established client network. Specifically, Fujitsu will leverage UL Solutions’ UL 360 environmental, social and governance (ESG) data management software, an offering in the ULTRUS platform, to help its customers meet the evolving sustainability disclosure standards. These new standards, developed by the Sustainability Standards Board of Japan (SSBJ), are aligned with the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
“For long-term business success for companies in Japan, strong ESG reporting is no longer a side issue but a core need for companies,” said Hidehiko Yamajo, regional vice president, Japan, UL Solutions. “Our new partnership with Fujitsu is a strategic move to help companies navigate these complex ESG reporting demands and complement our existing ESG data management software. These tools simplify these challenges, allowing businesses to manage their data easily, meet new reporting requirements and ultimately create real business value.”
The SSBJ’s new standards, promoting companies to report sustainability and climate-related information, are now available for voluntary application and proposed for mandatory application in 2027, mirroring the global trend towards increased ESG reporting accountability. These standards build upon previous initiatives, including requirements by the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Japan’s Financial Services Agency, a government agency and an integrated financial regulator responsible for overseeing the banking, securities and exchange, and insurance sectors to ensure the stability of Japan's financial system, which have progressively strengthened sustainability disclosure expectations for Japanese listed companies.
“Fujitsu is thrilled to join with UL Solutions for ESG and sustainability reporting in Japan,” said Hidenori Ito, senior vice president, head of Cross-Industry Solutions Business Unit of Fujitsu. “Fujitsu is consolidating all internal and external data, strengthening disclosure and regulatory compliance, and promoting rapid management decision-making through financial and non-financial analysis to realize ESG management. As part of FujitsuUvance, a business model based on social issues, we will integrate Fujitsu's technologies, such as AI and blockchain technology, based on our knowledge and know-how cultivated through collaboration with UL Solutions and our own practices. We will support the realization of data-driven sustainability management and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society by maximizing corporate value.”
In addition to its software solutions, UL Solutions offers a comprehensive suite of enterprise sustainability services, including environmental product declarations and zero-waste-to-landfill claim validations. The ULTRUS software platform, which includes Sustainable Supply Chain & environmental, health, and safety (EHS) services, was recognized as a leader by Verdantix in their Green Quadrant: ESG and Sustainability Reporting Software 2023 and 2025 reports and Green Quadrant: EHS Software 2025 report, as a unified platform, highlighting its effectiveness in helping companies navigate complex ESG reporting regulations and global compliance challenges.
About UL Solutions
A global leader in applied safety science, UL Solutions transforms safety, security and sustainability challenges into opportunities for customers in more than 110 countries. UL Solutions delivers testing, inspection, and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings, that support our customers’ product innovation and business growth. The UL Solutions Mark serves as a recognized symbol of trust in our customers’ products and reflects an unwavering commitment to advancing our safety mission. We help our customers innovate, launch new products and services, navigate global markets and complex supply chains, and grow sustainably and responsibly into the future. Our science is your advantage.
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu’s purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation. As the digital transformation partner of choice for customers around the globe, our 113,000 employees work to resolve some of the greatest challenges facing humanity. Our range of services and solutions draw on five key technologies: AI, Computing, Networks, Data & Security, and Converging Technologies, which we bring together to deliver sustainability transformation. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 3.6 trillion yen (US$23 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025 and remains the top digital services company in Japan by market share. Find out more: global.fujitsu
UL Solutions is now collaborating with Fujitsu to assist Japanese companies in navigating and adhering to Japan's newly developed climate reporting standards.
NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.
Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.
Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.
About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.
Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.
The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.
Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.
In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.
Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.
The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.
Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.
"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.
There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.
The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."
Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.
Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.
Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.
Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.
Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
