ESMA final report on the European Green Bonds Regulation

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a final report on the technical standards on the external reviewer regime under the European Green Bonds Regulation (EuGB). The regime requires external reviews of the pre-issuance factsheet and allocation report after full allocation of proceeds, and imposes certain requirements on external reviewers. The final report covers the regulatory technical standards (RTS) in relation to: (i) assessing senior management, board members and others involved in assessment activities; (ii) assessing sound and prudent management and conflicts of interest management; (iii) assessing knowledge and experience of analysts; and (iv) criteria applicable to outsourcing of assessment activities.

Respondents were broadly in support of ESMA's proposals. However, a key architectural change has been made in that the RTS on assessing knowledge and experience of analysts (under article 28(1) of the EuGB Regulation) has been merged into the RTS on assessing senior management, board members and others involved in assessment activities (under article 23(6) of the EuGB Regulation).

The final report also covers the implementing technical standards in relation to the standard forms, templates and procedures for the provision of registration information, where ESMA has made some technical changes including restructuring the original proposed articles to refer to annexes split by areas of relevance, and some material changes to the policies and procedures annex. ESMA has submitted the technical standards to the European Commission for adoption, subject to non-objection by the European Parliament and Council. A transitional period is currently in force for the external review regime, which is due to end on 21 June 2026.

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