An accelerating focus on doing business responsibly will force changes to wide-ranging aspects of business operations and strategy - Societal expectations of businesses have shifted fundamentally over the past five years....more
Welcome to the second edition of our Horizon Scan for 2024: key recent and expected funds, regulatory, and tax developments to look out for. As before, we focus on the most important developments and changes that we expect to...more
Amid a rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and initiatives, the European Union and United Kingdom have set their sights on efforts to combat greenwashing in the financial sector. Regulations...more
In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in green products and the promotion of sustainable objectives across the financial services industry. For example, we have seen much discussion of green loans, green...more
REGULATORY ISSUES & UPDATES - Mandatory Climate Change Reporting Requirements Under the New European ESRS E1 - The implementation of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards poses risks for reporting companies,...more
As the market continues to evolve with the dynamics of sustainable finance legislation, managers are often facing challenges in how to best navigate competing investor demand and sentiment on environmental, social, and...more
The EU regulators are reviewing the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation introduced in 2021, exploring the need for potential additional adjustments. On 14 September 2023, the European Commission initiated a...more
The Commission has launched a far reaching consultation and review of SFDR, long expected by the industry. This bulletin provides an overview, as well as giving thought as to what we might see in terms of SFDR 2.0....more
The European Commission (the Commission) has published two consultations to both evaluate and assess enhancements to the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). Open until 15 December 2023, the Commission is...more
The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) is a European regulation that has applied directly in the EU (and EEA countries) since March 2021. The aim of the SFDR is to provide harmonised disclosure requirements,...more
On June 13, 2023, the European Commission published “a new package of measures to build on and strengthen the foundations of the EU sustainable finance framework.” The aim is to ensure that the EU sustainable finance...more
In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been active in providing guidance and publishing new environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements. But the European community continues to...more
Financial services regulators globally are identifying sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues as key areas of concern, with the aim of encouraging greater investment in longer term and...more
On 10 March 2021,the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation ((EU) 2019/2088) ("SFDR") came into force. This imposes environmental, social and corporate governance (“ESG”) and reporting requirements on a wide range of...more
As we round up 2022, December has remained lively in terms of ESG and sustainability-related disclosures developments in the UK, EU and internationally. This round-up provides a summary of the key updates over the past month...more
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288, setting out the regulatory technical standards (RTS) to be used by financial market participants (FMPs) when disclosing sustainability-related information under the Sustainable...more
SFDR and Asset Allocators. The European Green Deal declared climate change and environmental degradation as existential threats to Europe and the world. The European Union (EU) has set out to mobilize private financial...more
After some delay, the United Kingdom’s financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) has published Consultation Paper CP 22/20 (Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (“SDR”) and investment labels)...more
The outcome of the review may signal what climate-related laws and policies to expect in the UK in the coming years. On 8 September 2022, newly appointed UK Prime Minister Liz Truss announced that Chris Skidmore MP, a...more
This latest edition of the regulatory initiatives paper sets out at a high level the core regulatory issues that are likely to impact private fund managers in the coming months, including an overview of the key actions needed...more
The policy change integrates climate change considerations for the first time into the ECB’s quantitative easing and repo facilities. On July 4, 2022, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it would integrate...more
As set out in our earlier OnPoint, “Is Brexit Green?”, the UK has adopted a different approach to regulating ESG in the asset management sector compared to the EU by not “on-shoring” the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure...more
The SFDR and the Taxonomy Regulation: Key Developments and What Firms Can Expect in the Coming Year - Almost a year on from the date on which the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) came into...more
On 3 November 2021 the FCA published a discussion paper (DP) seeking views on how best to introduce Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) for certain asset managers and FCA-regulated asset owners, as well as a...more
Green shoots emerge as PE firms consider new ways to incorporate ESG into dealmaking. Market sentiment and the increasing importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) to firms’ competitiveness across the...more