On 20 February 2023, the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/363 of 31 October 2022 (the Amended SFDR RTS) entered into force, amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288 of 6 April 2022 (SFDR RTS).
The aim of the Delegated Regulation is namely to include, in the SFDR disclosures, disclosure requirements about nuclear and gas-related activities, introduced in the EU Taxonomy in March 2022 by the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1214.
The key elements of the amendments to the SFDR RTS are the following:
- Revised annexes: the SFDR Annexes (pre-contractual and periodic) are amended with an additional question and a graph, requiring disclosing whether the financial product invests in fossil gas and/or nuclear energy related activities that comply with the EU Taxonomy.
- Clarification about the scope of Taxonomy disclosures: the Delegated Regulation clarifies that the application of the Taxonomy Regulation is relevant only for financial products committing to invest in “sustainable investments” with an environmental objective, as defined under Article 2(17) SFDR. As a result, funds disclosing under Article 8 that are not investing in “sustainable investments”, or funds investing in “sustainable investments” having only a social objective, are not required to include, in their SFDR disclosures, provisions about the Taxonomy-alignment of their investments.
- Correction of clerical errors: cross-references in Article 55(1) and 62(1) of the SFDR RTS have been corrected.
On 9 March 2023, Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) published a communication in relation to the Delegated Regulation.
In its communication, the CSSF brings clarity about the process of amendment of the pre-contractual and periodic disclosures of new and existing investment funds, in line with the SFDR RTS.
The CSSF confirms that the investment funds managers are required to use the new SFDR templates provided by the SFDR RTS for:
- Investment funds launched after 20 February 2023; and
- Existing investment funds for which changes are introduced in the prospectus/offering document after 20 February 2023.
It is important to note that for investment fund managers wishing to proceed with the update of their pre-contractual disclosures without making any other changes to the prospectus/offering document, the CSSF recommends to confirm, in the application file, (i) the use of new templates and (ii) the changes are limited to the implementation of the Amended SFDR RTS, in order to process the review of the file in a timely manner.
Finally, the CSSF also confirms that for annual reports of investment funds issued after 20 February 2023, the periodic disclosures that are presented to the CSSF must be drawn up in the format of the templates provided by the Amended SFDR RTS.
In view of the above, it is important to note that the layout (in particular some pictograms) of the templates set out in the amended SFDR RTS differs from the previous version.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our specialists Aurélien Hollard, Julie Pelcé and Julien Robert.
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