May 12, 2023 The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted welcome amendments that requires open-end funds (OEF) to prepare concise, visually engaging, iXBRL tagged annual and semi-annual reports for investors and shareholders. This week, the SEC took an important step towards the implementation of that rule with the publication of a draft taxonomy. Until…

May 12, 2023 Share buybacks are a significant chunk of US market demand for stocks, amounting to more than $1.25 trillion in 2022. Issuers use buybacks to return capital to shareholders, in some ways turning public markets upside down: traditionally companies come to stock exchanges to raise capital, not return it. They are also an…

In September 2022, the FCA sent a portfolio letter to benchmark administrators where the FCA highlighted the risk of poor disclosures for ESG benchmarks. High quality ESG benchmarks are important to support trust in the market for ESG products and the transition to a net zero economy. The FCA have now completed a preliminary review on…

While there has been a lot of focus on climate relate disclosures in recent years, the past year saw some significant import placed on biodiversity and nature in the wider sustainability realm. The TNFD, or Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, is an international initiative that aims to establish a framework for companies and financial institutions to…

The Financial Reporting Council has issued a joint statement with the FCA, the BoE and the TPR welcoming the Government’s update to the Green Finance Strategy, which recognises the role of the financial sector in delivering global and domestic climate and environmental objectives to ensure the UK is a leading centre of Green Finance. The FRC…

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday rejected a Republican proposal to prevent pension fund managers from basing investment decisions on factors like climate change, in the first veto of his presidency. “I just signed this veto because the legislation passed by the Congress would put at risk the retirement savings of individuals across the country,” Biden…

This week the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), together with the European Central Bank (ECB) published a statement encouraging disclosure standards for climate-related data on securitised assets. The ECB and ESAS argue that there is a lack of climate-related data on the assets underlying structured finance products, posing an obstacle to the proper assessment of climate-related risks…