On 14 April, the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published its report on Sustainable Finance and the Role of Securities Regulators and IOSCO, which seeks to help market participants address issues related to sustainability and climate change.
The Sustainable Finance Network of IOSCO (SFN) prepared the report, which highlights three recurring themes, namely multiple and diverse sustainability frameworks and standards, including sustainability-related disclosure, a lack of common definitions of sustainable activities, and greenwashing and other challenges to investor protection.
The report indicates that many issuers and asset managers operating cross border may be subject to different regulatory regimes or participate in multiple regional or international third-party initiatives. This wide variety of regulatory regimes and initiatives, often with inconsistent objectives and requirements, may prevent stakeholders from fully understanding the risks and opportunities that sustainable business activities entail.
As a result of the SFN’s work, the IOSCO Board agreed in February 2020 to establish a Board-level Task Force on Sustainable Finance. The Task Force’s aim is three-fold: first, to improve sustainability–related disclosures made by issuers and asset managers; second, to work in collaboration with other international organizations and regulators to avoid duplicative efforts and to enhance coordination of relevant regulatory and supervisory approaches; and third, to prepare case studies and analyses of transparency, investor protection and other relevant issues within sustainable finance to illustrate the practical implications of its work.
Click the link for more information on what AREF is doing on ESG & Impact Investing, including a link to the AREF ESG & Impact Investing Committee page.
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