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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published Questions and Answers (Q&A) on the SFDR Delegated Regulation RTS (Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1288) on November 17 only 6 weeks before the Level 2 regulation comes into force.
The Q&A clarifies a number of points including those relating to principal adverse impacts (PAI) and taxonomy-alignment in pre-contractual documents, website information and periodic reporting.
In this article you will find a summary of the main points affecting the SFDR Disclosures and how cleversoft will handle these.
a. PAI: “all investments” should be understood to mean both direct and indirect investments funding investee companies or sovereigns through funds, funds of funds, bonds, equity instruments, derivative instruments, loans, deposits and cash or any other securities or financial contracts.
The publication includes remarks for the specific use cases:
>> cleversoft will adjust the calculations respectively to contain cash in the denominator as suggested by the regulator
b. Taxonomy-alignment: in order to disclose “investments of the financial product in environmentally sustainable economic activities”, Article 17(1) of the Delegated Regulation sets out a closed list of investments that are “investments of the financial product in environmentally sustainable economic activities”.
As written in the Q&A (page 5): This is not the same as the “net asset value” of a financial product. While the net asset value would be netted by the financial product’s liabilities, the market value of all investment is the sum of all assets held by the financial product. Using the net asset value would lead to a higher share of Taxonomy-aligned investments than using the sum of all investments and could theoretically even lead to a share higher than 100% if all assets are Taxonomy-aligned and the liabilities would be deducted in the denominator.
The principal adverse impacts of long and short positions should also be netted accordingly at the level of the individual counterpart (investee undertaking, sovereign, supranational, real estate asset), but without going below zero.
The calculations for short positions should apply the methodology used to calculate net short positions laid down in Article 3(4) and (5) of Regulation (EU) No 236/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
>> cleversoft does already consider short positions.
а. The proportion of investments for which the financial market participant has relied on data obtained directly from investee companies, in order to calculate the corresponding indicator; and
b. The proportion of investments for which the financial market participant has relied on data obtained by carrying out additional research, cooperating with third party data providers or external experts or making reasonable assumptions, in order to calculate the corresponding indicator.
>> cleversoft will include these two comments as long as this information is provided by the respective data provider, e.g. sustainalytics have an extra field for researched and reported data. The cleversoft system already provides a flag to turn on and off the usage of estimates and additional researched data.
>> cleversoft ensures that the PAI calculations will keep considering all the clarifications.
>> cleversoft is running all the necessary calculations for the four periods when generating the PASI statement considering the portfolio positions form each period.
>> cleversoft is already considering the current investments and enterprise value as described above.
>> cleversoft uses the standard definitions by the respective providers MSCI, Sustainalytics, S&P etc.
>> cleversoft will include this approach in the PAI Table as described above.
FMPs can remove the sections that are deemed not relevant for their financial product in the disclosure templates only if those sections are accompanied by a red text instruction that explicitly limits the scope of application of the section.
>> cleversoft is already taking these comments into consideration.
FMPs can create their own framework for their financial products as long as they adhere to the letter of Article 2(17) SFDR. FMPs can create their own framework for their financial products if they adhere to the letter of Article 2(17) SFDR. Financial market participant should not, however, interpret Article 2(17) SFDR differently for different financial products that it makes available.
>> cleversoft is planning that all clients deliver a flag for “sustainable” investments for all instrument types, e.g. bonds, stocks, funds, etc.
No, the requirement to explain “how” the designated index differs from a broad market index suggests that the designated index cannot itself be a broad market index, notwithstanding the accompanying “why” question.
>> cleversoft has already foreseen the differentiation between ESG Designated index and broad market index in the data model
When calculating the proportion of taxonomy-aligned assets contributing to taxonomy-aligned economic activities, only the projects financed by green bonds under the future EU Green Bond Standard and other green bonds (the proportion of their value that corresponds to the share of the proceeds of those bonds used for environmentally sustainable economic activities) should be considered. As stated in Article 17(1)(b) of the Delegated Regulation, for its taxonomy-alignment KPI, a financial market participant can count an investment in a green bond up to the level of taxonomy-aligned activities the use of proceeds goes towards. The financial market participant should not take into account the issuer of such instruments for the purpose of the taxonomy-alignment KPI of the financial product
>> cleversoft considers green bonds as separate projects as long as this information is delivered by the data provider or client.
… financial market participants could adjust the metrics to reflect the fact that project financing bonds finance only specific activities and not the entire undertaking.
Some PAI indicators in Table 1 of Annex I of the Delegated Regulation could be applied at “project” level and not company level where the investment is in a security that finances a specific project rather than the issuer issuing the security, for instance GHG emissions (Table 1, Indicator 1), land artificialisation (Table 2, Indicator 18) or rate of accidents (Table 3, Indicator 2), while some other PAI indicators could still be applied at company level such as the unadjusted gender pay gap (table 1, indicator 12).
>> cleversoft considers green bonds as separate projects as long as this information is delivered by the data provider or the client.
Such a financial product should indicate 0% in the graphical representation in the section “To what minimum extent are sustainable investments with an environmental objective aligned with the EU Taxonomy?”. In addition, it should disclose a 100% share under the heading “What is the minimum share of sustainable investments with an environmental objective that are not aligned with the EU Taxonomy”.
>> cleversoft will include a “taxonomyZero”-Flag, so that every client can decide on whether to include or exclude all the taxonomy questions and charts when taxonomy is equal zero.
The ESG information chain is developing and both financial market participants and regulators may have to rely on the available data during the period before the application of the CSRD.
>> cleversoft will include a foot note with % ESG data available. All KPIs which cannot be calculated because of missing ESG Data will show n/a.
As stated in Article 17(2)(b) and Recital (35) of the Delegated Regulation, when Taxonomy-alignment of investments is not available from the public disclosures of investee companies, then the use of ‘equivalent information’ from investee companies or third-party providers is permitted.
Once the reporting prescribed by Regulation (EU) 2021/2178 on the Taxonomy-aligned activities of non-financial undertakings (from January 2023) and financial undertakings (from January 2024) starts, the disclosure of Taxonomy-aligned investments is expected to become more straightforward.
>> cleversoft will include an option for the clients to add an alternative ISIN per security to be delivered as custom data mapping.
The starting point for the evaluation of equivalent information, as referred to in Article 17(2)(b) of the Delegated Regulation, should be considered information that provides the same content and level of granularity as that provided by the reporting of undertakings of their Taxonomy-aligned activities in Regulation (EU) 2021/2178. In this respect, equivalent information should meet these following basic principles:
Article 15(1)(b) of the Delegated Regulation requires inclusion of a description of the investments underlying the financial product that are in Taxonomy-aligned economic activities, including whether the compliance of those investments with the requirements laid down in Article 3 of TR will be subject to an assurance provided by one or more auditors or a review by one or more third parties, and if so the names of the auditor or third party.
The review – which is an optional choice – does not necessarily have to include the internal process of the financial market participant as it should primarily address the investments made by the financial product in Taxonomy-aligned economic activities, specifically the compliance of those investments with the criteria for environmentally sustainable economic activities laid down in Article 3 TR. This review could focus on investments whose Taxonomy-alignment is not proven by disclosures made by undertakings under Article 8 TR. Where the Taxonomy-alignment of an investment is demonstrated by disclosures required by Article 8 TR, the review could choose not to carry out further verification with regard to the compliance of this investment with the criteria laid down in Article 3 TR, however the review could check that the financial product adequately reflects the Taxonomy-alignment in accordance with Articles 3, 5 and 6 TR, consistently with Article 8 TR disclosures.
>> cleversoft has already a narratives place holder, wo that every FMP can edit the explanation on their own.
The pre-contractual disclosure should not include “targets” for Taxonomy-alignment, nor the actual achieved level of Taxonomy-aligned investments, but only the minimum proportion which the financial product commits to meet. The periodic disclosures are intended to appropriately reflect the Taxonomy-aligned investments achieved by the product, including where the actual Taxonomy-alignment is higher than the minimum proportion.
>> cleversofts’ service gives already now every FMPs the possibility to provide the minimum proportion for Pre-Contractual Disclosures.
Subject to sectoral rules governing pre-contractual disclosures in Article 6(3) SFDR and any relevant contractual commitments, the pre-contractual disclosure on the minimum share of sustainable investments, including the extent to which the investments are in environmentally sustainable economic activities, is a commitment that should be met at all times. The information about the degree to which investments are in environmentally sustainable environmental activities, as referred to in Article 15(1)(a) and 19(1)(a) of the Delegated Regulation, should be based on the actual investments the financial product makes in order to satisfy the requirement to disclose “how and to what extent” the investments are in environmentally sustainable economic activities. For new financial products (or financial products that want to change their investment strategy) those references for the calculation of the Taxonomy-alignment of the aggregated investments should be understood as “expected investments”. “Expected investments” can be considered the investable universe, which is analysed, and on the basis of this analysis, a decision about Taxonomy-alignment commitment is made.
>> cleversoft will make sure that the template logic is adjusted accordingly for PreContractual and Web Disclosures.
Further topics on MOPs and taxonomy alignment will be added in due course.
Our Regulatory Watch team is closely monitoring any further developments on the SFDR and Taxonomy regulations. We offer standardised services on the full range of all relevant SFDR disclosure requirements.
Benefit from our SFDR service with the different modules for your pre-contractual, periodic, web disclosure and PASI statement. We also offer modules covering the generation and collection of EET files.
As part of our compliance commitment towards our clients, we provide regulatory updates in due time. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us: our experts will gladly advise you on the details.
