Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized Issue 2 2024

Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services Bite-Sized | Issue 2 | 2024 10 QUICK LINKS AIFMD ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING CBDC CRYPTOASSETS CYBERSECURITY FINTECH FSB IOSCO MIFID II/MIFIR OPERATIONAL RESILIENCE SUSTAINABLE FINANCE/ESG ASIA EUROPE LUXEMBOURG NETHERLANDS NORTH AMERICA UNITED KINGDOM The ECB concludes that work planned for these focus areas “will complement the ECB’s current climate-related actions in its ongoing tasks, including monetary policy and banking supervision.” The ECB expressed that it aims to improve its climate-related indicators, risk monitoring and disclosures, and continue to contribute to the development of climate-related policies in European and international fora. The press release states that, looking ahead, the ECB remains committed to regularly reviewing these actions to ensure they are “fit for purpose and contribute to fulfilling its mandate” . Link to the Climate and Nature Plan 2024-2025Webpage here Link to the ECB press release here Platform on Sustainable Finance Report on a Compendium of Market Practices On 29 January 2024, the Platform on Sustainable Finance (PSF), an advisory body to the European Commission, published its report on “a compendium of market practices”. The report focuses on seven stakeholder groups (corporates, credit institutions, investors, insurers, auditors and consultants, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and the public sector), showing that the EU taxonomy and the other sustainable finance tools (e.g. the European Green Bond Standard) which the European Commission state is “being used for setting transition strategies, structuring financial transactions and reporting on sustainability efforts.” The European Commission report outlines that the PSF report is accompanied by an annex, which includes concrete case studies for each stakeholder group. It is described that the case studies “highlight the first evidence that the EU sustainable finance framework is working on the ground and shows howmarket actors are using it including beyond regulatory compliance.” The European Commission report also describes that the PSF report identifies “some data and implementation challenges regarding the EU taxonomy and wider framework, which need to be further improved to fully support financial and non-financial actors in transitioning their business models to align with the EU’s sustainability objectives.” The European Commission report goes on to outline that the compendium of market practices will set the direction for future priorities on the implementation of the EU sustainable finance framework. The report provides (1) peer-to-peer recommendations (2) and recommends concrete actions for the PSF, as advisor to the European Commission, to continue supporting stakeholders in their implementation efforts. Building on the PSF report, the European Commission report describes how the European Commission will work closely with the PSF to “monitor the uptake of the different sustainable finance tools and provide guidance to make the application of the framework as easy and effective as possible.” The Platform on Sustainable Finance presented the report in a webinar on 6 February 2024. Link to the Report here Link to the Annex here Link to the Factsheet here Link to the Webinar here Link to the European Commission Report here Sustainability Reporting: MEPs Agree Later Adoption of Standards On 24 January 2024, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) approved a European Commission (EC) proposal to rationalise reporting obligations for companies by postponing the adoption deadline for sector-specific sustainability reporting standards for two years until June 2026. In addition MEPs approved the EC proposal to delay adoption of the general sustainability reporting standards for third country companies until 2026. However, MEPs stated that they believe that sector-specific sustainability standards enable comparisons between companies and are therefore valuable source of information for investors.