Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 1 2024

Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 1 | 2024 11 QUICK LINKS BENCHMARKS REGULATION CSDR CYBERSECURITY DEFI DIGITALISATION DORA ELTIF FSB FUND LIQUIDITY MONEYMARKET FUNDS OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG ASIA EUROPE IRELAND NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM When reviewing the reports prepared by issuers, the CSSF undertook a more in-depth analysis of the areas where more clarity was deemed necessary or where incorrect application had been identified, and further action was taken by the CSSF accordingly. The CSSF’s closing remarks and an outline on 2024 priorities are also provided in the report. The Full Report and CSSF’s Findings are Available here ESMA Proposes Changes and Updates Timeline for its Guidelines on Funds’ Names On 14 December 2023, ESMA issued a public statement providing an update on the status of its guidelines on ESG and sustainability-related terms in fund names (Guidelines), including details on the timing of their publication and adoption. The statement describes that, since the launch of the work on the guidelines, the AIFMD and UCITS Directive reviews have progressed, so ESMA has decided to postpone the adoption of the Guidelines to ensure that the outcome of these reviews may be fully considered. Particularly, the public statement highlights that text of the provisional agreement resulting from the interinstitutional negotiations is said to contains two newmandates for ESMA to develop guidelines specifying the circumstances where the name of an AIF or UCITS is unclear, unfair, or misleading. ESMA’s update goes on to outline ESMA’s plan to adopt the Guidelines shortly after the date of entry into force of those amended legal texts and ESMA says it is publishing this statement to highlight the key content of the guidance that it intends to provide in the forthcoming Guidelines. ESMA states that it intends to adopt the future Guidelines following the outcome of the review of the AIFMD and UCITS Directives and the expected entry into force of the newmandates. ESMA goes on to say that the Guidelines would apply three months after the date of their publication on the ESMA website in all EU official languages. ESMA’s public statement also outlines that managers of new funds would be expected to comply with the Guidelines in respect of those funds from the date of application of the Guidelines and that managers of funds existing before the date of application of the Guidelines should comply with the Guidelines in respect of those funds six months from the application date. Link to ESMA’s Public Statement here European Commission Draft Report and Call for Feedback on the Climate Change Taxonomy and EU Regulatory Response On 13 December 2023, the EU Commission’s Platform on Sustainable Finance published a draft report that includes proposals for EU Taxonomy-aligning benchmarks (TABs) and puts forward two proposals for voluntary benchmarks (TABs without exclusions, and EU Taxonomy-aligning benchmarks with exclusions – or TABex) with the described aim of initiating a discourse on the pivotal role the taxonomy could assume in shaping climate and environmental benchmarks. It is outlined that the suggested benchmarks do not discard alternative approaches to leveraging the taxonomy in the development of benchmarks. The call for feedback is open until 13 March 2024. Link to Press Release here Link to Report here NGFS Publishes a Technical Document Providing Recommendations for the Development of Nature-related Scenarios On 13 December 2023, the Network on Greening the Financial System (NGFS) published a technical document (TD) providing recommendations toward the development of scenarios for assessing nature-related economic and financial risks. The TD describes itself as providing recommendations on the development of nature-related risk assessment scenarios, highlights the specificities of nature-related risks as opposed to climate- related risks, and discusses and outlines potential pathways forward. Link to Press Release here Link to Technical Document here