Sustainable Finance: Impact on Mutual Funds

The Bank of Italy's analysis focuses on the effects of the 2021 introduction of EU Regulation 2019/2088 on the transparency of sustainable investments in the financial sector (SFDR). This Regulation requires mutual funds to inform the market and investors on how their investment strategies consider (or not) ESG criteria.

Transparency requirements for sustainability information

The SFDR Regulation, in Articles 8 and 9, regulates the transparency of the promotion of environmental or social characteristics, as well as sustainable investments, in pre-contractual disclosures.

If a financial product promotes, among other characteristics, environmental or social characteristics, or a combination thereof, provided that the companies in which the investments are made comply with good governance practices, the information to be disclosed includes:

• information on how these characteristics are respected;
• if an index has been designated as a benchmark, information indicating whether and how the index is consistent with these characteristics. In this case, financial mark...