Sustainable Finance in the EU and Belgium

This book is the result of an intensive cooperation between the European Association for Banking and Financial Law (AEDBF Belgium), Forum Compliance, and the Jan Ronse Institute for Corporate and Financial Law (KU Leuven).

The European Commission’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan has resulted in a review of the entire body of financial regulation, at a remarkable pace. No area of financial regulation remains untouched. For the financial sector, the impact is immense: almost all processes will have to be reassessed and possibly amended.

On the most remarkable innovations, this book offers contributions, grouped in four themes. A first part – “What Is Sustainable Finance?” – features contributions on taxonomy, sustainability labels and ESG-related bonds. A second part takes the perspective of corporations, with contributions on sustainable governance, the Non-Financial Reporting Directive and the proposed Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. A third part assesses the impact of sustainable finance on prudential regulation and supervision. The fourth and final part relates to sustainable finance regulation with a predominant investor protection objective, with contributions on the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, the sustainable finance-related changes to the MiFID and IDD frameworks, and the role of the conduct of business supervisor.

For everyone working in the financial sector, the sustainable finance movement represents an increased permanent education challenge. With this book, we hope to have contributed to this endeavour.