Yesterday, our Asset Management and Investment Funds Department hosted the latest session in our Knowledge Insights series discussing the role of exchange traded funds (“ETFs”) in the ESG investing transition and the particular challenges faced by ETFs in implementing the new framework under the European Commission’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan, providing analysis and insights to over 100 attendees.
Our partners Tara Doyle and Philip Lovegrove, together with our guest speaker Patrizia Libotte, Head of Investments at LGIM Mangers (Europe) Limited, discussed why ETFs are so popular as vehicles for ESG strategies. The panel also outlined the issues that ETFs and index tracking funds face when implementing the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (“SFDR”) and the EU Taxonomy Regulation.
Among the challenges discussed by the panel were data availability for ETF providers and the question of support from index providers. The interaction between the SFDR disclosure requirements and the requirements applicable to benchmark administrators under the amended EU Benchmarks Regulation were also examined. Recent engagements, both at a European and domestic level, between industry and regulators were discussed.
This session will complement our planned event on Financing through the Lens of ESG, which will be held in September. If you would like to be invited to future Matheson webinars, you can subscribe to our various mailing lists here. If you would like to access a recording of the above webinar, please contact knowledge.insights@matheson.com.
To read more about these developments, please visit our Sustainable Finance page.