On 2 December 2021, the CSSF published information about is fast track procedures in relation to certain disclosures required under Regulation (EU) 2020/852 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment (Taxonomy Regulation) and Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector (SFDR). The Taxonomy Regulation requires financial market participants to provide transparency in pre-contractual documents by 1 January 2022 in accordance with Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the Taxonomy Regulation on the environmental objectives of climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation.

The CSSF has established the following procedures for financial market participants that have not yet supplied it with the required updates to the prospectuses of UCITS, or to the issuing documents and any other applicable document of AIFs:

Fast track procedure for UCITS

For UCITS, the CSSF has set up a fast track procedure similar to that which it previously implemented in February/March 2021 to review the compliance of prospectuses with the Level 1 measures under the SFDR.

In order to qualify for the fast track procedure, prospectus updates must be limited to reflect only those changes which are required under Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the Taxonomy Regulation. Each updated UCITS prospectus must be submitted directly via e-file for visa stamp, together with a specific confirmation letter. The CSSF has also published a template of this confirmation letter.

For submissions under this fast track procedure that are received by 17 December 2021 and that are complete and compliant with the Taxonomy Regulation, the CSSF will endeavour to release the visa stamp prior to 31 December 2021. UCITS and UCITS managers are therefore strongly encouraged to file the prospectus updates by mid-December in order to meet the 1 January 2022 deadline.

Semi-fast track procedure for AIFs

For AIFs, the CSSF has opted for a semi-fast track procedure. Under this procedure, Luxembourg AIFMs (including managers of EuVECAs and EuSEFs) must provide the CSSF with the documents containing the specific information required under the Taxonomy Regulation, such as the Private Placement Memorandum or the issuing document, and any other applicable document for a managed AIF. The information communicated to the CSSF in this regard must be strictly limited to the information required under Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the Taxonomy Regulation.

These documents must be submitted to the CSSF by e-mail to the generic CSSF address (opc@cssf.lu). In the e-mail, AIFMs must clearly indicate in which document and where exactly the specific information related to the Taxonomy Regulation has been disclosed.

The CSSF has committed to swiftly processing any submission that is complete and compliant with the Taxonomy Regulation. AIFMs are therefore strongly encouraged to file the updates as quickly as possible in order to meet the 1 January 2022 deadline.

The CSSF further communicates that the necessary prospectus updates for Luxembourg ELTIFs will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Drafting guidance for the updates

As the industry once again finds itself in a situation where the Level 1 measures become applicable before the Level 2 requirements are adopted and begin to apply, for the purposes of these disclosures, the CSSF encourages financial market participants to make use of the draft pre-contractual and periodic product templates that were provided by the three ESAs (ESMA, EBA and EIOPA) by means of their draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) back in October 2021. The CSSF recommends the use of these draft RTS despite the fact that the EU Commission intends (as we understand from information published by the EU Commission earlier this week) to further defer the application date of the draft RTS from 1 July 2022 to 1 January 2023.

For further information, please reach out to your usual contact within the Fund Formation Group or directly to our dedicated ESG team.

Contact: sustainability@arendt.com

Access our dedicated page on ESG_

To access the CSSF press release, click here_

To access the CSSF’s template of the confirmation letter under the fast track procedure for UCITS, click here_

To access the Taxonomy Regulation, click here_

To access our newsflash on the ESAs draft RTS, click here_

To access the ESAs draft RTS, click here_