Insights

In anticipation of the coming into force of the ‘Level 1 Requirements’ on the 10 March 2021, the MFSA has issued a circular informing the market of the way forward in view of the Supervisory Statement published by the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) on the 25 February 2021. The Supervisory Statement intends to lessen the risk of divergent application of the SFDR in the interim period leading to the application date of the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) on the content, methodologies and presentation of sustainability-related disclosures. The draft RTS were issued on the 2 February 2021, and may be accessed here. As per the ESAs proposal, the implementation of the RTS is likely to be delayed to the 1 January 2022.

The MFSA has encouraged financial market participants and advisers alike to make good use of the time at their disposal from now until the 1 January 2022 to adequately prepare for the application of the RTS. In this respect, the regulator has also encouraged financial market participants and financial advisers to follow the table found in the Supervisory Statement, which essentially provides a summary of the relevant SFDR and Taxonomy Regulation disclosure obligations and their respective implementation timelines.