New ESG Disclosure Obligation for Financial Market Participants Effective From 30 June 2021

The European ESG Disclosure Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2019/2088) has been in force since 10 March 2021. The aim of the Disclosure Regulation is, among other things, to establish comprehensive transparency obligations on specific sustainability aspects for all financial market participants. According to the legal definition of the regulation, affected financial market participants mainly include AIFs, UCITS and pension products as well as AIFMs, UCITS management companies and investment firms.

In addition to the provisions already in place, the Disclosure Regulation, which is already applicable to a large extent, also contains obligations that will enter into force at a later date. The next effective date specified therein is 30 June 2021. Starting on this date, pursuant to Art. 4(3) of the regulation, financial market participants employing an average number of more than 500 employees during the financial year will be required to publish on their website information on their due diligence policies with respect to the principal adverse impacts of investment decisions on sustainability factors.

As the obligation, which will apply as of 30 June 2021, only affects financial market participants that employ an average number of more than 500 employees during the current financial year, the number of service providers affected is negligible and only involves a small percentage of our clients. It should be noted that the determining factor is the number of employees of a legal entity and not of a group.