On Tuesday, our colleague Alexander Ehmann, together with Ingeborg Schumacher (Responsible Impact Investing), Dr. iur. Heidi Erika Gysi (EY), Daniel Sailer (Metzler Asset Management) and Marc Zoll (terrAssisi), was on the panel of the Friends of Funds event “ESG Update: Regulation, metrics, categorizations, data quality”, which was moderated by Neda Derlokova (Northern Trust).
The panel discussed the experience gained in recent years with the various ESG regulations. The participants agreed that the current regulation is too extensive and complicated and that this is one reason why the topic of ESG has not yet had the desired effect, particularly in retail fund distribution. It was therefore agreed that it would make sense to simplify regulation for retail investors, whereas institutional investors will continue to require detailed ESG information.
The potential impact of the recently published Joint ESAs Opinion on the assessment of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) (https://lnkd.in/dz-kahUP) and the Guidelines on funds’ names using ESG or sustainability-related terms (https://lnkd.in/d7AExBrj) were also discussed. It remains to be seen how these, in particular the introduction of uniform ESG labels, will be accepted by the market. What is certain is that investors will need more rather than less explanation in the future.
The quote of the evening came from Marc Zoll: “Fund companies should take ESG seriously, but remain relaxed about it.”
We are already looking forward to the next Friends of Funds event!
For more information about Friends of Funds please visit www.friends-of-funds.ch.
