On 30 November 2022, the European Commission adopted an Implementing Regulation amending the implementing technical standards laid down in Implementing Regulation 2021/637 as regards the disclosure of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks together with Annex 1 and Annex 2. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/6372 specifies uniform disclosure formats and associated instructions for the disclosures … Continue Reading
On 28 November 2022, the European Commission (Commission) Platform on Sustainable Finance Technical Working Group published a report on supplementary methodology and technical screening criteria. The report is a supplement to the recommendations published by the Platform on sustainable finance in March 2022 and should be read in that context. The recommendations and criteria within … Continue Reading
On 22 November 2022, the European Commission (Commission) issued a call for advice to the European Banking Authority (EBA) on green loans and mortgages. In its ‘Strategy on Financing the Transition to a Sustainable Economy’ (Strategy) of July 2021, the Commission outlined four policy areas in which further work is needed. One of the four … Continue Reading
On 18 November 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a consultation paper containing draft guidelines on funds’ names using ESG or sustainability-related terms. Currently, ESMA has provided some principles based guidance on funds’ names with ESG or sustainability related terms in a supervisory briefing on sustainability risks and disclosures in the area … Continue Reading
On 15 November 2022, the European Banking Authority (EBA) announced that the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) had published a call for evidence on greenwashing. The call for evidence seeks input on potential greenwashing practices in the whole EU financial sector, including banking, insurance and financial markets, which may be relevant to various segments of the … Continue Reading
On 15 November 2022, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) published their initial findings and lessons from the Climate Scenario Analysis by Jurisdictions. The report provides a synthesis of the findings from climate scenario analysis exercises undertaken by financial authorities at the individual firm level, at the level … Continue Reading
On 2 November 2022, the European Central Bank (ECB) published the results of its thematic review, which shows that banks are still far away from adequately managing climate and environmental risks. The thematic review aimed to check whether EU banks adequately identify and manage climate risks as well as environmental risks such as biodiversity loss. … Continue Reading
On 31 October 2022, the European Commission updated the technical standards to be used by financial market participants when disclosing sustainability-related information under the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation. The amendments will require financial market participants to also disclose by way of a simple graph the extent to which their portfolios are exposed to the gas … Continue Reading
On 27 October 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) announced that it is changing its Union Strategic Supervisory Priorities (USSPs) to include ESG disclosures alongside market data quality. According to ESMA, this represents an important step in the implementation of its strategy, which gives a prominent role to sustainable finance. The USSPs are … Continue Reading
On 25 October 2022, the FCA published Consultation Paper CP22/20 on sustainability disclosure requirements (SDR) and investment labels. In the Consultation Paper, the FCA expresses that there are growing concerns that firms may be making exaggerated, misleading or unsubstantiated sustainability-related claims about their products; claims that don’t stand to closer scrutiny (so-called ‘greenwashing’). The FCA … Continue Reading
On 24 October 2022, the European Banking Authority (EBA) published a report, addressed to competent authorities, on how to incorporate ESG risks in the supervision of investment firms. The Report also provides an initial assessment of how ESG factors and ESG risks could be included in the supervisory assessment of investment firms. The Report should … Continue Reading
On 21 October 2022, the PRA published a letter it had sent to CEOs of PRA-regulated firms, which provides a summary of capabilities, to which PRA-regulated firms are expected to be able to demonstrate now, on approaches to managing climate risks. The letter sets forth that every firm in scope of Supervisory Statement 3/19 ‘Enhancing … Continue Reading
On 13 October 2022, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) published its 2022 Status Report. As part of its assessment, the TCFD reviewed publicly available reports of over 1,400 companies from eight industries and five regions to better understand current climate-related financial disclosure practices and their evolution. Key takeaways from the report include: … Continue Reading
On 13 October 2022, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published its final report on supervisory and regulatory approaches to climate-related risks. The report is intended to assist all authorities in assessing climate-related risk. However, the applicability of the high-level recommendations may differ depending on each authority’s mandate and the role that different tools (such as … Continue Reading
On 11 October 2022, the European Platform on Sustainable Finance published a final report on minimum safeguards. It also published platform recommendations on data and usability of the EU taxonomy. The final report advises on the application of minimum safeguards (MS) in relation to Articles 13 and 18 of the Taxonomy Regulation. It does so … Continue Reading
On 7 October 2022, the Green Technical Advisory Group published the first part of its independent advice on the design and implementation of a UK Green Taxonomy. The advice focuses on onshoring the EU Taxonomy, international interoperability, do no significant harm and taxonomy use cases.… Continue Reading
On 7 October 2022, the FCA updated its webpage on UK SFTR news. The FCA has updated the webpage by adding a section regarding reporting legal entity identifiers (LEIs) of third country issuers under UK Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (UK SFTR). In this new section the FCA reminds readers that in March it extended a … Continue Reading
On 6 October 2022, there was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) a European Commission Notice on the interpretation of certain legal provisions of the Disclosures Delegated Act (Delegated Regulation 2021/2178) under Article 8 of EU Taxonomy Regulation on the reporting of eligible economic activities and assets. The Commission Notice sets … Continue Reading
On 30 September 2022, the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published a final report containing draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) regarding the disclosure of financial products’ exposure to investments in fossil gas and nuclear energy activities under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). The proposed RTS amend the RTS laid down in Delegated Regulation (EU) … Continue Reading
On 29 September 2022, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced that it has commissioned an independent review of the government’s approach to delivering its net zero target. The review will assess the economic co-benefits associated with different policies and how the government can drive down the cost curve for net zero … Continue Reading
On 21 September 2022, the European Commission announced its plan to ensure complete and timely transposition of EU directives. The Commission is adopting a package of infringement decisions due to the absence of communication by Member States of measures taken to transpose particular EU directives into national law (referred to as ‘non-communication infringements’). In the … Continue Reading
Introduction On 31 August 2022, the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published a final report on retail investor education in the context of sustainable finance markets and products. The final report has been prepared by IOSCO’s Committee on Retail Investors which was mandated to identify developments in investor education with regard to sustainable finance, … Continue Reading
On 23 August 2022, the FCA announced that it is establishing a new advisory committee to the FCA’s Board to work on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues, and is looking for expressions of interest from stakeholders to join. Earlier this year, the FCA Board decided to establish a brand new ESG Advisory Committee to … Continue Reading
On 4 August 2022, the European Commission published a report providing an overview of the results of an earlier targeted consultation on ‘ESG ratings and ESG factors in credit ratings’. Among other things the report notes that: The vast majority of respondents declare that they do use ESG ratings and among these, 77% use them … Continue Reading
