regulation

In brief: EU delays SFDR phase 2

The SFDR’s second phase – which will provide more detailed requirements for managers of ‘sustainable’ funds – will come into force on 1 July 2022.

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The second phase of the EU’s sustainable finance disclosure regulation, which will provide asset managers with more detailed reporting requirements, will be applicable from 1 July 2022 – a further six-month delay, Reuters reports.

The second phase, known as ‘Level 2 regulatory technical standards’, consists of additional reporting requirements for managers of funds classed under Articles 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the SFDR. This legislation is still being drafted by European Standards Authority.

The first phase of the SFDR came into effect on 10 March and requires asset managers to report on ‘principal adverse sustainability impacts’ – adverse impacts caused by managers’ operations and the funds and financial products they offer, law firm Simmons & Simmons explains. Asset managers are now required to provide these disclosures, despite the absence of the Level 2 RTS clarifications.

The Level 2 RTS was initially due to come into effect on 10 March but was delayed to 1 January 2022, before this further delay to 1 July 2022.

“Due to the length and technical detail of those regulatory technical standards… we plan to bundle all 13 of the regulatory technical standards in a single delegated act and defer the dates of application of 1 January 2022 by six months to 1 July 2022,” said John Berrigan, head of the European Commission’s financial services unit, in a letter to the European Parliament.

  • Read more about the SFDR here.