ESAs issued a supervisory statement on the application of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)

On 25 February 2021, the three European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA)(ESAs) published a joint supervisory statement on the effective and consistent application and national supervision of the regulation on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector (SFDR), promoting a level playing field and the protection of investors.

In the statement, the three ESAs recommend the draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) be used as a reference when applying the provisions of the SFDR in the interim period between the application of SFDR (as of 10 March 2021) and the application of the RTS at a later date. The supervisory statement complements the recently released Final Report (here) including the draft regulatory technical standards issued by the ESAs Joint Committee on 4 February 2021.

The ESAs have set out in an Annex more specific guidance on the application of timelines of specific provisions of the SFDR. The Annex also includes a summary table of the relevant application dates of the SFDR, the Taxonomy Regulation and the related RTS.

While financial market participants and financial advisers are required to apply most of the provisions on sustainability-related disclosures laid down in the SFDR from 10 March 2021, the application of the RTS will be delayed to a later date as per the European Commission’s letter to the ESAs of 20 October 2020 on the application of the SFDR (here). The ESAs have proposed in the draft RTS that the application date of the RTS should be 1 January 2022.

The Joint Supervisory Statement can be found here.

The press release can be found here.

The Final Report can be found here.