On November 3rd the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released for comment, Discussion Paper: Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and investment labels (DP21/4).

Financial market actors and interested parties are invited to provide their comments on 2 main topics:

• Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR): With a scope disclosure requirement that goes beyond climate, listed issuers, asset managers and asset owners will be required to report on their sustainability risks, opportunities and impacts. Required disclosure will include (i) consumer-facing disclosures (investment product label, investment strategy, wider sustainability performance metrics, objective of the products…) and (ii) detailed underlying disclosures (at product level, entity level).

• Sustainable investment labels: With the requirement for certain investment products to display a label reflecting their sustainability characteristics. The FCA proposed to map investment products into four categories namely (i) Not promoted as sustainable; (ii) Responsible and Sustainable ‘Transitioning’ categories; (iii) Sustainable ‘Aligned; ’(iv) Sustainable ‘Impact’, a category in its own right. Each category will be supported by clear definitions and criteria.

Comments on DP21/4 are to be provided by 7 January 2022 to dp21-04@fca.org.uk or by filling out the online form.