Swiss regulator launches climate disclosure consultation

Written by Adam Cadle

13/11/2020

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is conducting a public consultation around bank and insurer disclosures concerning climate change and financial risks.

The consultation will run until 19 January 2021, and banks and insurance companies are required to inform the public adequately about their risks. These also include the consequences of climate changes, which could pose significant financial risks for financial institutions in the longer term.

FINMA said financial institutions have until now displayed varying levels of transparency with regard to climate-related financial risks. In order to create more transparency, FINMA is therefore specifying the disclosure requirements pertaining to these risks for large financial market players.

“More comprehensive and consistent disclosure of climate-related financial risks stands not only to support an adequate analysis of such but also to promote comparability and market discipline,” it said.

“The objective is to achieve a proportionate and principle-based structuring of this disclosure. Institutions in categories 1 and 2, that is, systemically important banks and large insurance companies, are required to make their climate-related financial risks transparent. In content terms the regulatory approach is based on the internationally recognised recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)."

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