The German financial supervisory authority, BaFin, has adjusted its guidelines relating to information on taxonomy-compliant investments in fossil gas and nuclear energy, following short-notice changes the European Commission implemented to the Regulatory Technical Standard (RTS) of the Sustainable Financial Disclosure Regulation (SFDR).

BaFin now considers it reasonable for market players to provide information on whether they conduct ecologically sustainable investments in the fields of nuclear energy and fossil gas, and the share of those investments.

This applies in the case of financial products with a minimum share of ecologically sustainable investments within the meaning of Article 2 No.1 of the taxonomy regulation, BaFin said.

The new guideline does not apply if nuclear energy and fossil gas are excluded from the pool of investments.

BaFin said it expects financial market participants to make every effort to immediately comply with the new requirements of the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/363 as set by the Commission.

The regulator will start to apply the regulation requirements to check for compliance with Articles 8 and 9 of the SFDR, with regard to pre-contractual information, from 1 September.

Short-notice changes

European legislators have changed the RTS relating to the SFDR, in force since 1 January, by applying the new delegated regulation. The new rule came into force on 20 February, three days after its promulgation in the Official Journal of the European Union.

EU legislators have not set a specific and separate date for putting in place the delegated regulation, therefore deviating from the usual procedure of an implementation period of several months for disclosure obligations, BaFin said.

Instead, financial market participants were only given three days to adjust their processes to the new rules to provide information on taxonomy-compliant investments in the field of fossil gas and nuclear energy, it added.

The delegated regulation leads to changes about information given in format templates on taxonomy-compliant investments in the field of fossil gas and nuclear energy.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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