{"id":55,"date":"2023-11-30T07:29:44","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T07:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iqeq.com\/gb\/2023\/11\/30\/fca-publishes-sustainable-disclosure-requirements-with-significant-changes-compared-to-consultation\/"},"modified":"2024-08-07T13:42:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T13:42:25","slug":"fca-publishes-sustainable-disclosure-requirements-with-significant-changes-compared-to-consultation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iqeq.com\/gb\/insights\/fca-publishes-sustainable-disclosure-requirements-with-significant-changes-compared-to-consultation\/","title":{"rendered":"FCA publishes Sustainability Disclosure Requirements, with significant changes compared to consultation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Harry Barnes, Senior Compliance Consultant, and Andrew Shrimpton, Chair, UK Regulatory & Compliance Solutions<\/em><\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has now <\/strong>published<\/strong><\/a> its Policy Statement on the long anticipated Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Policy Statement (PS23\/16), unveiled on 28 November 2023, notably includes a number of key changes compared to the consultation, which was released in October last year. It also follows the FCA\u2019s statement<\/a> earlier this month that fund managers have more work to do on embedding ESG.<\/p>\n

In this article, we provide a brief background on the SDR before outlining its scope, implementation dates and key requirements for UK-regulated firms.<\/p>\n

Why has SDR been introduced?<\/h2>\n

With sustainable and ESG investing becoming increasingly central to investment markets as a whole, the FCA recognises the need for investors to have confidence in the sustainability of investments in order to ensure capital flows and that those capital flows are put to good use.<\/p>\n

To this end, the FCA has had growing concerns around greenwashing and investors being misled by firms making unsubstantiated or exaggerated claims about the ESG credentials of their products and investments. And so, SDR came to be.<\/p>\n

Aims of SDR<\/h2>\n

The disclosure and labelling regime under SDR is specifically aimed at distinguishing between the purpose of different sustainable investing strategies, as opposed to<\/a> attempting to measure the level of sustainable investing.<\/p>\n

As Consumer Duty has been one of the FCA\u2019s biggest areas of focus this past year, the protection of consumers and ensuring that consumers understand the products they invest in is an integral part of the regime. SDR also brings into existence the broader anti-greenwashing rules<\/a> impacting all UK authorised firms, thus raising the bar even for firms that are not caught under its disclosure and labelling regime.<\/p>\n

Who is subject to SDR, and who isn\u2019t?<\/h2>\n

Firms in scope of SDR are:<\/p>\n