EACT responds to European Commission consultation on a Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy

The European Association of Corporate Treasurers (EACT) has published its response to the European Commission’s (EC) consultation on a Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy. We support the EC’s ambitions to create the regulatory basis for a reorientation of capital flows towards sustainable and transitional economic activities and emphasise the importance of creating a predictable and stable regulatory framework for corporate end-users of financial markets.  

It is important that EU policymakers provide an incentive structure and realistic pace of transition to ensure that all segments of the economy are enabled to be a part of the transition. Therefore, we call for the creation of harmonised and transparent rules to govern the transition – across disclosure requirements and incorporation of ESG criteria in various processes such as ratings, and accounting standards.

To enable corporates to better navigate financial markets, it is equally important to create an EU harmonised minimum standard with regard to the methodologies and input data for ESG research, sustainability data, sustainability ratings, and – where applicable – credit ratings. We also support the introduction of transparency requirements for such providers with regard to the methodologies and input data used to ensure genuine comparability across different providers and jurisdictions.

We further support the creation of a voluntary EU Green Bond Standard, accompanied by a single EU rulebook for verifiers of EU Green Bonds that sets out the type of information that should form part of their assessment as well as the procedural elements of the verification process. 

Download EACT Response to Consultation (PDF)