In December 2022, the Federal Council specified its position on greenwashing with the objective to create a clear and common understanding of a “sustainable” investment and mandated the Federal Administration to submit proposals on how this position could be implemented in the regulatory environment.  

In general, Switzerland faces the following challenges when designing regulation: First, it is crucial to align Swiss law with international developments in an equivalent way to ensure the competitiveness of the Swiss financial market. Second, seeing that financial markets are already subject to a very high regulatory density there is a strong demand from the industry for simplification to reduce costs. Third, unlike other countries and the EU, Switzerland has a principle-based regulatory approach, which foregoes detailed regulation but instead relies on higher-level rules. And fourth, the Swiss financial market relies on a functioning interplay between government regulation and self-regulation, the so-called co-regulation, which has proven to be successful for years.

On top of addressing these general regulatory challenges, adequate regulation not only needs to reflect the complexity of sustainable investment while leaving flexibility for new market solutions, but it also needs to provide more clarity and increase trust in sustainable finance. There is no way around tackling this challenge – after all Switzerland aims to be a leading sustainable financial centre.

> Read more about these and other SSF activities

Swiss News

• The “ESG-Reporting-Standard for Pension Funds” was published by ASIP at the end of December. It contains a series of recommendations for appropriate ESG reporting.
• Economiesuisse published their “Business guidelines – financial flows and a sustainable economy”, which set out six guidelines to further sustainable finance in Switzerland.
• In its Guidance 01/2023: Developments with regard to the management of climate risks published on 24 January 2023, FINMA draws attention to relevant developments in the area of climate-related financial risk management and re-iterates its expectation that supervised institutions establish an appropriate climate risk management framework based on recognised practices. View the full guidance here.

International News

• Recently, the discussion surrounding establishing ESG rating standards in the US has been reignited. The idea was proposed in November 2022 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was supported by a call from the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) which emphasized the need for voluntary standard-setting bodies and industry associations to promote good practice to counter greenwashing.
• At the end of December at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP15) in Montreal an agreement on the Kunming-Montreal Global biodiversity framework was reached by participating parties. Among other goals, it declares the importance of aligning private and public financial flows with the goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework and stresses the key role that private finance can play in closing the funding gap on nature conservation. Finance for Biodiversity published a summary for financial players here.

Market News

• WWF launched their Risk Filter Suite on Biodiversity Risk, which is designed to be used as a corporate and portfolio-level screening tool to help identify biodiversity risks and prioritise corporate action on biodiversity. Their risk filters are aligned with global reporting frameworks such as the TCFD and the TNFD and is suitable for both corporates and FIs who want to identify biodiversity risks relevant to their operations.
• On 1 February , Eurosif announced that it has decided to phase out their European SRI Transparency Code during 2023.
• Over the past few months, PRI has published several case studies illustrating how different investors align their investment processes, portfolios and business models with the reality of climate change. These featured examples can be useful illustrations of how to lower carbon intensity of portfolios and operations.

We are happy to welcome the following organisations as new SSF member:  

• B Capital Partners AG (Asset Manager)
• Caisse de Prévoyance de L’Etat de Genève (CPEG) (Pension Fund)
• Helvetica Property Investors AG (Asset Manager)
• Instituto di Previdenza del Cantone Ticino (Pension Fund)
• KPMG Personalvorsorgestiftung (Pension Fund)
• Sulzer Vorsorgeeinrichtigung (SVE) (Pension Fund)

 The full list of our members and network partners, now standing at 231, can be found here. 

• 9 February, St.Gallen, Expert Forum on Sustainability-Linked Credit, University of St. Gallen
• 10 March, Zurich, Aktionärsdialog und Netto-Null: Alles nur heisse Luft? CRIC and reformierte Kirche Kanton Zürich
• Save the Date: 22 June 2023, Bern, SSF Annual Conference and Members’ Assembly

• 14 January, Nachhaltige Anlagen dienen primär dem Image, Tagesanzeiger
• 13 January, Zürcher Finanzplatz soll weiter wachsen, SRF
• 13 January, Zürcher Finanzplatz spielt eine wichtige Rolle, Interview with SSF CEO Sabine Döbeli, Tele Z
• 13 January, Im rot-grünen Zürich soll nun auch der Finanzplatz grüner werden: Die Politik will nachhaltiges Anlegen zum grossen Thema für Banken und Versicherungen machen, NZZ
• 10 January, Sabine Döbeli: «Impact Investments werden populärer», Interview with SSF CEO Sabine Döbeli, Finews

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