Further delay to FCA final disclosures and investment labelling regime

On 17 July 2023, the FCA published an update to its Regulatory Initiatives Grid.

This confirmed that, in light of the range of comments received to its “Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels” consultation, it would push the publication of the Policy Statement from Q3 2023 to Q4 2023 .

What’s the background?

In October 2022, the FCA published CP 22/20 on the SDR (the CP). This set out the FCA’s proposals for a regime which would increase transparency on the sustainability profile of products and firms and reduce the risk of harm arising from greenwashing. See our client note on the CP here and our response to the FCA here.

At that stage, the FCA expected to be in a position to publish a Policy Statement (PS) and final rules by the end of H1 2023.

However, on 29 March 2023, it published an update (see our report here) pushing the timing back to Q3 2023. This date has again slipped.

The rules were expected to take effect in H2 2024 but it seems likely that their application date will be adjusted in line with the publication of the PS.