This year has been one of adaptation as our industry adjusted to a rapidly evolving environment. We have seen in the market a clear focus on the business case for sustainability; from risks to opportunities. Encouragingly, the Swiss market has shown renewed growth in sustainable investing, and in the lending space more structured approaches are increasingly applied, as our two market studies documented.

On the way forward, greater transparency and more standardised reporting are helping to build trust and comparability. A concrete example for a tool leading to greater transparency is the SSF sustainable real estate questionnaire, which enables an efficient exchange of information between direct and indirect real estate investors. In the Nature Exchange Group, jointly with the Global Compact Network, SSF offers guidance to help financial institutions report on nature impacts and dependencies. Capacity building across different topics continues to be a core activity for SSF. The wide variety of our e-learnings and other educational materials effectively supports our members in adopting sustainable finance practices.

Financial services will remain an important partner for companies of other sectors as well as governments in moving our economy towards sustainable practices and fostering innovative solutions. I would like to thank you for your continued support and look forward to a fruitful collaboration in the year to come.

European News

• An agreement was reached between the European Council and Parliament regarding the CSRD and the DSDDD. For CSRD the threshold for companies covered was set at 1000 employees and a net turnover of €450 million, while for CSDDD it is 5000 employees and €1.5 billion net turnover.
• The European Commission published an open consultation on the European climate resilience and risk management integrated framework. Until 23 February 2026 all individuals, actors, and organisations can fill in the questionnaire and thereby support to close the knowledge and evidence gap in climate regulation.

International News

• COP 30 in Belém came to an end, leaving many of us disappointed, as the phase-out of fossil fuels did not make it into the final statement. Being framed as the “implementation COP”, the conference nevertheless lead to considerable progress on a more technical level, be it by establishing a 2-year work programme on climate finance to ensure that finance from both public and private sources for developing countries will surge to at least USD 1.3 trillion per year by 2035. A shift from mitigation to adaptation led to a new goal to triple adaptation finance by 2035 and the definition of specific adaptation indicators.

Market News

• On 2 December, PCAF announced the launched of the updated PCAF Standard for Part A and Part C, as well as new guidance on Financed Avoided Emissions and Forward-Looking Metrics. The updated PCAF Standard significantly expands the ability of financial institutions to measure and report emissions related to financial activities. 
• Amundi launched the Amundi Responsible Investing Euro Credit Biodiversity fund which aims to preserve biodiversity as Amundi perceives the loss in biodiversity as a critical risk.
• The Ethos Foundation published its new study on the sustainability reporting of Swiss companies. In 2025, 137 listed companies were obliged to publish a sustainability report and have it approved by the general meetings.
• ENCORE launched a nature dependency tracker for EU-countries. It summarizes the exposure to nature of each sector in a country and generates country scores. The goal is to improve transparency among the EU-countries and create the foundation for development.

Special discounts for our members:

Institutional Capital Forum (reach out to us)

• Vienna: 19 & 20 March 2026
• Zurich: 22 April 2026
• Frankfurt: 12 & 13 May 2026

• 18 January 2026 (Save the Date), New Year’s Networking Breakfast at Maison de la Finance Durable (SSF, SFG, Building Bridges and SIFI), Geneva
• 22 January 2026 (Save the Date), "Sustainable Investing - Here to Stay" Webinar #4: Impact Investing (SSF), Online
• 29 January 2026, Launch Webinar for SSF Spotlight: "How Artificial Intelligence Contributes to Effective Sustainable Finance" (SSF), Online
• Early February 2026 (Save the Date), Launch Webinar for SSF Spotlight: "How Much Impact? Addressing challenges in measuring impact in impact investments" (SSF), Online
• 5 February 2026 (Save the Date), Using Market Tools: Nature Risks (SSF and SFG), Geneva
• 10 February 2026 (Save the Date), Institutional Asset Owner’s breakfast (SSF and PRI), Geneva
• 10 February 2026, Presenting the Swiss Sustainable Lending Market Study (SSF and CSVN), Lugano

Further events are listed on the SSF website.

• 22 November 2025, Schweiz auf Kurs im ESG-Gegenwind: Nachhaltige Finanzwirtschaft und regulatorische Rahmenbedingungen, Sustainable Switzerland
• 27 November 2025, Il futuro della finanza «verde» va oltre il costo opportunità, Corriere Del Ticino (Print)
• 13 December 2025, Nos modes de vie, nos motivations, LE TEMPS (Print)

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