On 4 October 2022, the Central Bank of Ireland ("Central Bank") published formal confirmation of the fast track process for filings to implement the Level 2 requirements under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation ("SFDR"). Under the SFDR Level 2 requirements, funds within the scope of Article 8 and Article 9 of the SFDR must complete pre-contractual disclosure templates, which will be provided to investors together with the fund prospectus / supplement, and the form of which is prescribed in annexes to the delegated act adopted under the SFDR. These templates must be completed and made available to investors from 1 January 2023.
The publication of the confirmation from the Central Bank follows a meeting between the Central Bank and representatives of the Irish Funds ESG Policy, Legal and Regulatory Working Group (including Tara Doyle, Head of our Asset Management and Investment Funds Department) last month to discuss the Irish Funds submission to the Central Bank requesting a fast-track for the implementation of the SFDR Level 2 requirements.
At that meeting, the Central Bank confirmed its intention to apply a stream-lined review process or "fast-track" to SFDR Level 2 filings. The Central Bank also confirmed that it intended to apply similar conditions to the Level 2 fast-track as applied to the previous fast-tracks for SFDR Level 1 and Taxonomy Level 1. The deadline for filings using this process will be 1 December 2022.
The Central Bank has now published a document setting out the final conditions applicable to the fast-track, which takes into account the various requests made by industry representatives at the September meeting.
We have summarised the relevant conditions applicable to the filing process in this briefing document here.