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 must be complied with by January 1, 2023.
In particular, the RTS Regulation contains specific requirements regarding the content and format of the sustainability information that financial market partici-pants and investment advisors must provide to interested investors.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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.
- Scope of Application
The RTS Regulation in particular 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 doc-umentation and annual reports
For the pre-contractual information (e.g. PPM, prospectus or information mem-orandum), 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 inves-tors to compare different financial products in terms of sustainability.
- Product-related sustainability in-formation on the website
The RTS Regulation also contains detailed requirements for the product-related sustain-ability information that financial market par-ticipants 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.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.