On 14 September 2023, the European Commission announced that it has launched a targeted consultation and a public consultation to seek feedback on the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

The SFDR, which has been in application since March 2021, sets out how financial intermediaries, such as asset managers, have to communicate sustainability information to investors. It is designed to bring more transparency to the market and enable investors to make informed choices.

The public consultation is addressed to a broad range of stakeholders and concerns the SFDR as it is today, and the potential issues stakeholders might face in implementing it.

The targeted consultation is aimed at stakeholders who are more familiar with the SFDR and covers the regulation as it is today, exploring how it is working in practice, its interaction with other parts of the European framework for sustainable finance and the potential issues stakeholders might be facing in implementing it. It also looks to the future, assessing possible options to address any potential shortcomings.

Both consultations will run until 15 December 2023.

The consultations will also be accompanied by a series of workshops which begin on 10 October 2023. The workshops will discuss current challenges of the SFDR and possible ways forward for sustainability disclosures in the EU. Questions to be tackled include how to ensure better coherence between the SFDR and other parts of the EU’s sustainable finance framework, how to make disclosures more effective as well as the potential introduction of product categories.