By Clare Farrugia, Head of Strategy, Policy and Innovation, MFSA
Harmonised rules on sustainable finance disclosures for financial services providers are essential to enable consumers to make informed decisions about their investments and mitigate greenwashing.
The EU regulatory framework on sustainable finance disclosures and reporting consists of a set of regulations and initiatives that aim to foster transparency, accountability and comparability of financial products and services that claim to have positive environmental, social, governance impacts.
National Competent Authorities play a key role in the consistent implementation and application of such disclosure requirements and in helping to enhance the transparency of the market and supporting the development of green finance. Accordingly, identifying good practices of Competent Authorities is critical in order to strengthen the supervision of EU sustainability disclosure and reporting requirements and in bringing more convergence into it and facilitating the growth of sustainable finance activities.
In a recently held three-day TAEIX-TSI Workshop, the MFSA hosted experts from several European National Competent Authorities (NCAs) sharing best practices, experience, challenges, and views on the subject. In addition, over the past days, a number of MFSA staff have also participated in a similar two-day on-site TAEIX-TSI workshop in Warsaw, hosted by the Polish Financial Supervisory Authority and which was also aimed at the sharing of best practices of sustainability disclosures, by NCAs. By exchanging knowledge and experience with other Authorities, the MFSA aims to enhance its supervisory capacity and effectiveness in the field of sustainable finance.
These best practices TAEIX-TSI Workshops, form a critical part of an 18-month, multi-country project managed by the European Commission Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) and funded by the European Union through the Technical Support Instrument (TSI). The primary objective of this project is to facilitate institutional, administrative, and growth-oriented structural reforms within four participating jurisdictions (Malta, Croatia, Poland, and Romania). The project aims to bolster the capacity of participating national competent authorities to design, develop, and implement reforms that enhance supervisory capabilities and promote convergence in the area of sustainable finance reporting and disclosure in the EU.
The continued enhancement of the Authority’s expertise and capacities to meet the new supervisory responsibilities in Sustainable Finance is a strategic priority for the MFSA and the MFSA’s participation in this key project is aligned to the attainment of such objective.
As the single regulator for financial services in Malta, the MFSA is committed to the development and integration of sustainable finance practices within the financial sector, and more generally, towards the national and EU sustainability goals, supporting the transition to a more sustainable and resilient financial system.
