Consob has published a Notice regarding the Guidelines on appropriateness and execution only, issued by ESMA in the framework of Directive 2014/65/EU (so-called “MiFID II”).
On 12 April 2022, ESMA published on its website, in the official translation into Italian, the “Guidelines on certain aspects of the MiFID II appropriateness and execution-only requirements” adopted by ESMA.
The Guidelines are also available on the Consob institutional website in the Italian version, together with the full text of the “Final report” in English (containing the summary of the responses to the consultation and the consequent observations of ESMA), useful for allowing a correct application of the aforementioned Guidelines. They provide operational guidelines regarding the possible ways of implementing the obligations provided for by the legislation for intermediaries who provide investment services under the appropriateness and execution-only regime.
In compliance with paragraph no. 3 of article 16 of Regulation no. 1095/2010/EU, the European Authority was informed that Consob complies with the Guidelines in question, integrating them into its supervisory practices.
The intermediaries subject to Consob supervision are therefore required to comply with the interpretative guidelines provided by ESMA through the Guidelines covered by this notice from 12 October 2022.
The number of websites blacked out since July 2019 has thus risen to 708.
The European Parliament published draft amendments to the text submitted by the European Commission regarding the European Green Bonds Regulation (EuGB).
The proposal introduces numerous amendments to the Commission’s text, in particular:
  • transparency requirements are introduced for all bonds marketed as green, including alignment with taxonomy regulations. This would allow investors to compare EuGBs with other existing green bonds. Furthermore, all issuers of EuGBs must have guarantees to ensure that they do not harm people or the planet.
  • to prevent highly polluting companies from using the EuGB label to pretend to be greener than they actually are, the proposal requires all EuGBs to have verified transition plans. It also ensures that all green bond issuers develop processes to identify and limit the main negative impacts of their activities. Finally, it prohibits all issuers from countries on the EU’s grey or black list of fiscal havens from issuing EuGBs;
  • supervision is strengthened in various ways. External reviewers who review the EuGB should have fewer conflicts of interest and provisions are included to ensure that the authorities could ban companies from issuing EUGBs if they fail to follow the rules. The adopted text also ensures stronger market-pressure to comply with the rules by ensuring investors have legal recourse if the issuer’s failure to comply leads to the depreciation of a green bond.
  • the adopted text requires stronger transparency requirements so that when a green bond issuer intends to allocate proceeds to nuclear energy or fossil gas related activities, a statement must appear prominently on the first page of the EuGB Factsheet.
Green bonds play an increasingly important role in financing assets needed for the low-carbon transition. However, there is no uniform green bond standard within the EU.The new European Green Bond Standard aims to ensure that European companies can benefit from green financing and that investors have adequate information about it.