The European asset management body EFAMA has gone public with a comment on the European Commission’s plans to revisit the bloc’s sustainability reporting rules, saying that asset managers need corporate sustainability data.
Next month the European Commission is expected to present an initiative to simplify three of the European Union’s flagship sustainability rules, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which came into effect last year.
Campaigning for a scaling back of EU sustainability reporting rules has been ramping up in recent weeks and this week the board of EFAMA met to discuss the upcoming omnibus proposal.
It said that sustainability reporting by investee companies guides asset managers’ sustainable investments and allows them to comply with their own sustainability reporting obligations under the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR).
“Without available CSRD data, asset managers are reliant on ever more expensive ESG data and ratings from third-party providers,” said EFAMA.
It said the omnibus initiative should be used to make the CSRD consistent with the SFDR.
The Dutch pension fund federation, Pensioenfederatie, recently said that any meaningful changes made to requirements under the CSRD would need to be reflected in the SFDR, which is being reviewed.
In its comment, EFAMA also issued a request for “urgent confirmation that asset management companies are not required to include clients’ assets as part of their own CSRD reporting”.
“This is crucial as, while the CSRD text rightly excludes fund products (UCITS funds and AIFs) from reporting, it is not clear enough that clients’ investments – which are not part of an asset manager’s balance sheet given the agency nature of its business – must not be seen as part of its ‘value chain’,” it continued.
It added: “EFAMA looks forward to the upcoming dialogue with lawmakers and other stakeholders to support the European Commission in making the EU more competitive, and in improving the consistency, usability and effectiveness of the EU sustainability reporting framework.”
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