Your browser does not support JavaScript!

Clarifying the sustainable investment universe: what is needed (labels, ESG ratings…)? 

Day 1 Afternoon

Wednesday 07 September

Room :

CONGRESS HALL 2

Speakers

Chair
Marcel Haag
Director, Horizontal Policies - DG for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission
Public Authorities
Carlo Comporti
Commissioner - Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB)
Benoît de Juvigny
Secretary General - Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF)
Christina Papaconstantinou
Deputy Governor - Bank of Greece
Birgit Puck
Managing Director Securities Supervision - Austrian Financial Market Authority
Paul Tang
Member of European Parliament - Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament
Industry Representatives
Jessica Ground
Global Head of ESG - Capital Group
Navindu Katugampola
Global Head of Sustainability - Morgan Stanley Investment Management
Natalie Westerbarkey
Director & Head of EU Public Policy - Fidelity International

Objectives of the session

The volume of ESG or sustainable finance is continuously increasing. But there is also a growing suspicion of “greenwashing” and a couple of financial investors are under investigation for this reason or have even been penalised in Europe and the United States. Finally, it is often not clear for the investor why a financial product is said to be sustainable.

Labels and ESG ratings are expected to help. But they are numerous (and labels are often country-specific) and in general not convergent. Their methodologies are not always clear and not easy to compare. Some labels or ESG ratings have been criticized as too lenient.

The implementation of the SFDR has complicated the landscape, because some sustainable funds have used the article 8 or 9 of the regulation as labels even if it is only a self-declaration.

A ESMA study highlights that there are 59 sustainable rating agencies in the EU. While most of them are very small (median turnover €5million), there are also three international large players having the larger market share by far and two medium-sized EU companies.

One specificity is that contrarily to credit-rating agencies, the rating outcome strongly diverge from one rating agency to another. Rating approaches are not transparent enough and not easy to compare. ESMA’s conclusion is that to avoid potential conflicts of interest and to investigate their methodologies, these service providers, except the small ones, should be supervised.

In this context, the roundtable will be asked to assess if labels and ESG rating agencies contribute enough to the clarification of the sustainable investment universe and how the situation could be improved.

Points of discussion

  1. How to describe the ESG or sustainable labels and ESG rating agencies landscapes today?
  2. What is needed to improve their contribution to clarifying the sustainable investment universe?