European Commission

The reaction to recent European Commission proposals for AIFMD II reform from Luxembourg finance industry participants was positive. On the whole, changes have been kept to a minimum. For Luxembourg this means the alternative fund industry’s current business model does need to change, but the country will have to manage some more back-office tasks, and needs to ensure some more substance.

SFDR and the green investing taxonomy have been broadly well received across Europe, but what if other economic powers adopt contradictory rules? Some signs of action are emerging from global discussions.

The European Commission has identified six key areas to raise its ambitions in the field of sustainable finance. One of them is sustainable finance. To this end, it has drafted a regulation to establish a European standard for green bonds (EUGBS).

This proposal will be a voluntary standard available to all issuers to help finance sustainable investments. Green bonds are already being used to attract financing in sectors such as energy production and distribution, resource efficiency in housing and low-carbon transport infrastructure.

Could regulatory moves be underway that will help unlock the promise around blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT)? Too often great new ideas and tools run into a wall of financial sector regulation before they can show their full promise.

What will come next from the EU after the green taxonomy, SFDR and green labelling? Martin Spolc, head of the Sustainable Finance Unit at the Commission’s DG FISMA revealed a six-point roadmap designed to take ESG to the next level at Luxembourg for Finance’s Sustainable Finance Forum on 28 October.

The European Commission will relax a number of financial market rules to enable stock exchanges to play a greater role in the recovery from the coronavirus crisis.