IRELAND: EU Sustainable Finance Regulatory Overview – Impacts for Irish Funds

Thursday July 30 2020

On 29^th July 2020, the Irish Funds Industry Association (IE) published a white paper on Irish Funds Sustainable Finance Regulatory Overview.

Sustainable investing and ESG integration are key priorities for investors and policy makers are leading on a number of initiatives aimed at transitioning to a more sustainable economy. As the EU Commission seeks to reorient private capital flows towards sustainable investments to meet its climate and energy targets, a package of legislative measures has been introduced to help achieve this. These measures will have impacts for asset managers, their products and their investors.

Key Proposals:

The Action Plan identifies 10 key points but for funds and their management companies, the key proposals relate to:

• Establishing a taxonomy for sustainable activities.
• Creating standards for green financial products.
• Incorporating sustainability as part of financial advice.
• Developing sustainability benchmarks and better integrating sustainability into ratings.
• Strengthening the disclosure made by asset managers and financial advisors to their clients

These are achieved by three key measures:

• Taxonomy Regulation: A regulation on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment.
• Low Carbon Benchmarks Regulation: An amendment to the EU Benchmarks Regulation to introduce new ESG related benchmarks.
• Disclosures Regulation: The EU Regulation on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector.

Click on the below link for further information.