Application of SFDR Regulatory Technical Standards Delayed until 1 January 2023

The Commission had earlier announced that the SFDR RTS (also known as SFDR Level 2 measures) would be adopted in a single delegated act with an expected application date of 1 July 2022. However, the Commission now explains that additional time is required for the adoption and implementation process due to the length and technical detail of the draft RTS submitted by the European Supervisory Authorities in October 2021 (here).

The Commission’s letter also notes that financial market participants which publish the statements referred in point (a) of Article 4(1) or paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 4 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation will be required to comply with disclosure requirements on principal adverse impacts on sustainability matters set out in the SFDR RTS for the first time by 30 June 2023, ie, the first reference period under the SFDR RTS will be 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.

It is important to note that the impending deadline of 1 January 2022 in respect of pre-contractual document updates relating to the climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation objectives under the Taxonomy Regulation remains unchanged.

In our recent briefing, ‘Central Bank confirms ‘fast-track’ filing process for sustainability disclosures’ (here), we highlighted details of the Central Bank of Ireland (“CBI”)’s ‘fast-track’ filing process for both Taxonomy and SFDR RTS-related filings. The provisions in respect of SFDR RTS-related filings included a requirement that those filings be made at any point after 31 March 2022 and no later than 27 May 2022. The CBI highlighted that the SFDR RTS filing process (including filing dates) would be subject to review and may be revised in line with SFDR developments.  Now that the deadline for compliance with the SFDR RTS has been pushed out by six months, we expect the CBI to revise the filing deadlines in respect of the ‘fast-track’ filing process relating to SFDR RTS disclosures to reflect the Commission’s revised application date. We will monitor developments and provide further updates in due course.