On April 6, 2022, the EU Commission published the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 (“RTS Regulation”, as it mainly contains so-called Regulatory Technical Standards), which supplements and concretizes the Disclosure Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (“SFDR”). The RTS Regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union in July 2022 and will enter into force on January 1, 2023.
In particular, the RTS Regulation contains specific requirements regarding the content and format of the sustainability information that financial market participants and investment advisors must provide to interested investors.
The most important facts about the SFDR disclosures in brief
- Art. 8 and Art. 9 SFDR funds must use the RTS Regulation templates in the pre-contractual information and their annual reports starting January 1, 2023.
- The sustainability information on the fund manager’s or investment advisor’s website must also comply with the requirements of the RTS Regulation from January 1, 2023.
What exactly are the SFDR disclosures about?
Scope of Application
The RTS Regulation exclusively concerns so-called Art. 8 and Art. 9 SFDR funds. In other words, funds that promote an ESG criterion (Art. 8 SFDR) or exclusively make sustainable investments within the meaning of the SFDR (Art. 9 SFDR).
Product-related sustainability information in pre-contractual documentation and annual reports
For the pre-contractual information (e.g. PPM, prospectus or information memorandum), the RTS Regulation contains a template in Annex II and Annex III, which may only be deviated from with regard to the font and font size. Annex IV and V contain similar templates with comparable requirements for the periodic reports (in practice, therefore, basically the annual reports). The standardization of sustainability information should make it easier for investors to compare different financial products in terms of sustainability.
Product-related sustainability information on the website
The RTS Regulation also contains detailed requirements for the product-related sustainability information that financial market participants and investment advisors must make available on their websites. The product-related sustainability information on the website is intended to supplement the information in the pre-contractual documents and annual reports. There are no templates for product-related sustainability information on the website, but at least concrete guidelines for the structure and specific content of the information on the website.