IOSCO Establishes Expert Group to Work on IFRS Sustainability Project
IOSCO announced that it has established a Technical Expert Group (TEG) to undertake an assessment of the technical recommendations to be developed as part of the sustainability project of the IFRS Foundation. The TEG will be co-led by MAS and the U.S. SEC and will comprise sustainability reporting technical specialists from within the Sustainable Finance Task Force and the leadership of IOSCO´s policy committee on issuer accounting, auditing, and disclosures. In addition, IOSCO welcomed the announcement from the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation on the formation of a working group to undertake technical preparation for a potential international Sustainability Standards Board (SSB) under the governance of the IFRS Foundation. IOSCO also welcomed the invitation to join this group as an observer.
IOSCO looks forward to collaborating with the working group as it develops its technical recommendations, including planned work to further refine the prototype climate-related disclosure standard (the prototype) as a basis for the SSB to build on existing initiatives in its standards development. IOSCO states that this responds to the pressing investor need for globally consistent, comparable, and reliable sustainability disclosure standards. IOSCO also looks forward to continuing its dialog with the Trustees as they commence work to explore the establishment of a multi-stakeholder expert consultative committee within the IFRS Foundation structure. IOSCO continues to see a consultative committee as a promising mechanism to support the practical delivery of the "building blocks" of a global comprehensive corporate reporting system.
The new TEG of IOSCO has been established under the Sustainable Finance Task Force. The TEG will work closely with the IFRS Foundation’s working group and will be tasked with reviewing and assessing its technical recommendations focused on enterprise value creation. As part of this, the TEG will assess refinements to the prototype and its content, including industry-specific metrics. The TEG will consider whether the refined prototype could be a sound basis for the development of an international reporting standard under the SSB, with a focus on enterprise value, that will:
- meet the capital market’s core information needs and serve as a baseline for consistent and comparable approaches to mandatory sustainability-related disclosures across jurisdictions.
- be compatible with existing accounting reporting standards and promote good governance of sustainability-related disclosures among preparers.
- form the basis for the development of an audit and assurance framework.
IOSCO views the proposed SSB and its future standards as a promising solution for achieving consistent, comparable, and reliable cross-border sustainability-related reporting requirements and would encourage IOSCO members and relevant authorities to consider the standards when setting sustainability-related disclosure requirements. In the course of its work, IOSCO will seek opportunities to gather the views of global stakeholders and market participants on the prototype and its content. In light of the urgent need to improve the consistency, comparability, and reliability of sustainability-related disclosures across jurisdictions, IOSCO expects that the TEG will complete its initial assessment of the technical recommendations and refinements to the prototype before COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, in November 2021.
Related Link: Press Release (PDF)
Keywords: International, Banking, Insurance, Securities, Climate Change Risk, ESG, Disclosures, Reporting, IFRS, Sustainable Finance, COP26, Sustainability Standards Board, IOSCO
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