Since 10 March 2021, insurance intermediaries providing advice on IBIPs and investment firms providing investment advice have to comply with some specific sustainability-related disclosure obligations under the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR).

Since 2 August 2022, the IDD and MiFID II (and other sectoral legislation, i.e. AIFMD, UCITS, Solvency II) require insurance intermediaries distributing IBIPs and investment firms providing investment advice and portfolio management to integrate sustainability factors, risks and preferences into their decision-making process. These requirements include the identification of a customer’s sustainability preferences during the suitability assessment and the identification of financial products matching these preferences.  In order to comply with these requirements, intermediaries need to be able to rely on product information provided by manufacturers. Manufacturers of financial products therefore have to include in the product information document of each financial product, information regarding investment in sustainable economic activities under the SFDR or the Taxonomy Regulation.

In November 2023, BIPAR sent a working memo to its members that covers the main sustainability-related obligations that are relevant to intermediaries when providing advice. The objective of this memo is to provide an overview of relevant rules and some indications on how to comply with them.