Last March 30, International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published its report on "Retail Market Conduct", a comprehensive toolkit of measures for regulators to consider in response to the evolving retail trading landscape, influenced by changing macro conditions, demographic trends, and technology. Greenwashing and crypto-asset scams are "two important examples of misconduct arising from global trends and technological developments".
Chapter 2.13. of the report is titled "Increased Greenwashing Risk", where, the term “greenwashing” refers to misrepresenting sustainability-related practices or the sustainability-related features of primarily investment products. IOSCO adds that in the “race to promote their green credentials,” some asset managers may misleadingly label products as sustainable without meaningful changes in the underlying investment strategies or shareholder practices.
Three objectives for financial education on sustainable finance are highlighted for regulators to consider in their jurisdictions:
raising awareness
enhancing understanding
translating these into informed decision-making
You may recall that IOSCO is also working on other documents. As we posted last January 17 "Voluntary Carbon Markets and Compliance: two papers from IOSCO out for comments". Comments received on these two consultation reports were posted on 27 March 2023. You can read all them by clicking at the image below . Inputs received include ICVCM, IETA, Nasdaq, Sylvera, UN PRI, VCMI, Verra + other 40 entities. Comments are very interesting.
IOSCO is the the global standard setter for securities markets regulation. SEC from United States, CVM from Brazil, AMF from France and SEBI from India are members, like securities regulators from most of the other countries and stock exchanges.
