On 20 March 2023, the FCA published a Dear CEO letter to benchmark administrators setting out the findings of its preliminary review into ESG benchmarks. The review covered: (i) the quality of disclosures made by a sample of UK benchmark administrators; and (ii) the robustness and reliability of ESG benchmarks themselves. The FCA’s key finding was that the overall quality of ESG-related disclosures made by benchmark administrators is currently “poor”.
A series of briefings that take a bite-size look at international trends in different jurisdictions, drawing on Baker McKenzie’s expert financial services practitioners with local market knowledge. This edition takes a bite-size look at the latest environment, social and governance developments in Brazil, the European Union, Belgium, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.
On 22 November 2022, the FCA announced the formation of a new ESG data and ratings group, which will work to develop a Code of Conduct for Environmental Social and Governance data and ratings providers.
Regulators and policymakers have left emergency measures behind and returned to their reform agendas. In this piece, Baker McKenzie regulatory experts set out the top ten UK developments for financial institutions and fintechs to watch in 2022 covering: good culture, Consumer Duty, BNPL regulation, crypto regulation, AML regulation, appointed representatives regime, financial promotions gateway, operational resilience, ESG regulation, divergence, Future Regulatory Framework Review.
The European Commission has sent a letter to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU announcing a delay to the date of application of regulatory technical standards (RTS) under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). The Commission has now deferred implementation of the SFDR RTS to 1 January 2023.
As 2020 comes into view, what can we expect to be at the top of regulators’ agendas? Key themes that are new from last year are ESG and an increased focus on operational resilience. Both EU and UK authorities are looking at how buy and sell-side firms should embed ESG…