Upcoming key events in, or involving, Switzerland

This event inaugurates the first Swiss Climate Reporting Forum. This platform was created to lead the conversation on climate reporting in Switzerland. It brings together sustainability, risk and finance professionals from government, corporates, solution providers, associations and NGOs seeking a platform to learn, educate and exchange on the topic of climate reporting. Join Sabine Döbeli, CEO SSF, and other speakers to exchange on this topic.

With a view to the existing problems in relation to data or new technologies at financial institutions, the VfU e.V. has been offering the Sustainable Finance Toolbox webinar series since 2020. In this event VfU will present exciting start-ups, projects and established companies with their innovative products/services that make a positive value contribution to the transformation of the financial industry. In this webinar Calcolution will be introduced.

As part of the EU Action Plan to redirect capital to sustainable investments, the Sustainable Finance Directive Regulation (SFDR) requires financial market participants to make ESG disclosures on the investment funds they manage. Under this regulation, the first step was for asset managers to inform whether their investment funds pertain to the so-called SFDR Articles: Article 6 for funds with no specific sustainable objective, Article 8 for funds with either social or environmental objectives, and Article 9 for funds where sustainability is the core objective. Hence, Article 9 represents the most advanced funds when it comes to sustainability.

However, after this first SFDR exercise, many funds disclosed as Article 9 have been downgraded, as the requirements for this Article are high and difficult to meet. Considering the current statistics, the number of Article 8 funds has indeed increased due to, among other reasons- these downgrades.

From this point, different questions have arisen, including how funds are named or labelled and how words like “sustainable” or “green” may sometimes mislead and increase greenwashing risks. Therefore, the ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) issued a consultation on a potential threshold system for labelling funds as sustainable. However, the latest Q&A by the EU Commission does not take reference to threshold labelling, and the requirement remains for financial market participants to disclose their methodologies for fund constructions.

The financial sector plays crucial role when it comes to change, since it acts as global enabler for the transformation of the industry. Inflation, the ECB-interest adjustment and the development of reporting standards are only a few of many examples which will shape our financial industry in the coming years.

Be part of how one of the largest industry players is key in providing capital for sustainable transformation plans.

12 June

• How to finance the transformation – the role of the financial sector to unlock private capital
• Sustainability-linked Supply Chain Finance & Utility Services – how to get supply chain financed, green and running
• The role of Regulation – Pragmatism vs. Perfectionism 

13 June

• Global Priorities for COP 28 – an outlook to the next meeting
• Data for Success – getting the right insights for the right financial decisions
• Digitalization in Finance to strengthen resilience and sustainable growth

SSF members can benefit from 15% reduction to the ticket cost. Please send us an e-mail for the code.

The GFSI is an unmissable event on the Lake Geneva financial agenda for sustainable finance. Each year, more than 400 participants including the main asset managers as well as the community of management professionals meet to network and learn about the latest industry trends.