Webinar on EU Sustainable Finance Strategy attracted a record audience

The webinar panel Outi Helenius, Jesse Collin, Vesa Syrjäläinen, Josina Kamerling and Sirpa Pietikäinen.

CFA Society Finland had the pleasure of organizing the webinar “Regulatory Expectations and Impact of the EU Sustainable Finance Strategy” with CFA Institute on 11 October 2021. We had a record amount of webinar registrants, we were thrilled that this topical subject matter interested our members and stakeholders.

Our board member, vice president Niina Arkko, CFA was hosting the event and welcomed everyone, giving an introduction to the subject as well the keynote speaker Sirpa Pietikäinen, Member of Parliament, European Union.

Niina Arkko.

Sirpa Pietikäinen.

Sirpa Pietikäinen gave an interesting presentation on the topical regulatory development in the European Parliament, and the present updates being made in the field of sustainable legislation, such as SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Legislation) and Proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) as well as the new EU Taxonomy Climate delegated act which has recently taken big steps in the parliament. Sirpa highlighted the many factors to take into account when companies are reporting on the industry environmental impact such as usage of raw materials, ecosystems and energy and the effects on biodiversity. She underlined also the important IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) work, where global standards of integrated ESG reporting are being drafted. New important announcements or agreements are expected at the UN 26th Climate Change Conference for the global sustainable finance framework.

We were really happy to welcome our panel with a broad view to the markets and regulations with Outi Helenius, Head of Sustainability, Member of the Board, Evli Fund Management, Vesa Syrjäläinen, CFA, Responsible Investment Analyst, Varma, and Jesse Collin, Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs at the Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion (Pörssisäätiö). Josina Kamerling, Head of Regulatory Outreach, CFA Institute, was our terrific moderator for the panel session. Important topics raised in the panel were 1) the standards used for company ESG data, 2) how the data should be reported, measured and analyzed, 3) whether the reporting should be in some cases made compulsory and 4) the “ESG knowledge” needed globally in the industry and especially on board level. There is also a need to make parallels between the company sustainable information and financial information reporting and when auditing this data.

Regarding ESG data and reporting, there is definitely harmonizing needed around the world and it is pivotal to have discussions around these issues among different stakeholders.

The webinar discusses the findings from CFA Institute report on Corporate Governance and ESG Disclosure in the EU, which can be found here .