A Message from The International Organisation of Securities Commissions

[Music] dear ladies and gentlemen Frankly Speaking what a pleasure to be with you in Abu Dhabi today for the well-known Abu Dhabi Finance week and first of all allow me to congratulate you for the excellent organization is the place to be to discuss many challenges about um the future of the financial uh SEO and also it's a real honor for me to address such a distinguished audience besides I have to say the timing of uh this race Summit on sustainable Finance couldn't be better time with cup 28 starting today in Dubai what a fantastic acronym race I have to say congratulation again you deserve a copyright for that raise regulation awareness collaboration ation an ecosystem so it's a comprehensive I would say uh expression and all of which deserve our attention as Financial regulator in the context of climate change however and I hope that you will understand speaking my capacity as iOS cboard chair I will be focusing my intervention on of course regulation and collaboration why because they are by definition many links in a crossborder u system and it was something addressed by many members of the panel just before my speech so it means that when we have to discuss about regulation it means crossborder regulation how to avoid fragmentation and it means by definition collaboration regulation because iosco is as you know one of the few Global membership organization of financial supervis there are not so many Global membership organization and iosco is a global standard setting body that has an excellent track record in delivering policy outcomes and limiting regulatory fragmentation collaboration of course because it's the so-call res of iosco to reach consensus we never vote it's a consensus B I'm not sure that so many people in the audence know that the starting point of many uh reform are in fact in Madrid the headquarters of iOS scho when you speak about mutual funds hch funds Benchmark rating agency crypto assets most of the time the first high level principle were designed at worldwide level and then translated for instance in Europe through binding and non-binding regulation it's normal because whenever you have a consensus around the table it means much more capacity to convey the message uh for the political decision maker at jurisdiction level where the political legitimacy exist so it also means that collaboration across region is of the utmost importance if we are to meet the challenge of achieving the necessary regulatory consistency in order to deliver Global solution to Global challenges and when we speak about global challenges risk and opportunity of course will we are speaking about sustainable Finance what does it mean for iosco well it means that iosco has been leading important work on four work streams a comprehensive package first sustainability disclosure second priority related Asian standards third transition plan but also last but not least Financial Integrity of carbon market and all this issue cannot be addressed at jurisdiction level alone they require the involvement of every jurisdiction collaboration is therefore key across jurisdiction and across regions I appreciate the importance of my responsibility as iOS co-chair in developing solution that are both ambitious enough to reach our joint objective and at the same time being scalable and proportionate so as to Ure that no one is Left Behind and taking into account Regional specifities I am come from Belgium as you know Belgium is not the biggest country all around the world so it means that in this kind of country we understand of course by definition what it means to be able to make compromise that's that's also an expression in my country to make Belgium compromise and that's what we are doing I would say at ioso level and it's important I'm not sure that everybody knows what it means I ioso iosco it means 130 jurisdiction there are less than 200 independent state all around the world and all members are involved in various capacity in the supervision of almost 95% of the global financial sector all around the world so it means that when you have a consensus around the table of iosco board by the definition it meets a consensus for many many different reasons and I have also to stress the fact that the majority of our members are representative of grow and Emerging Market we have a very important gr Emerging Market Shar by my colleague from egyp Muhammad which is in fact a very large uh committee with more than 90 jurisic and the work of iosco is under pin by all goals of investor protection and market and this is something fascinating I have to say you don't you don't have to think that it happen frequently in a career of a financial Cup on a financial supervisor because the starting point it's not a government it's not the G20 it's not the FSB it's in fact you you if you are private or sophisticated investor John and Mary in the street who would like to invest in companies in product which are in line with your ESG expectation are you interested in using in work working with an alphabet soup of private and public standards all around the world of course not you would like to work with one Global standards and that's the reason why the starting point you ladies and gentlemen excellencies is so important it's a demon driven exercise and that's the reason why iosco has to be there I am not saying that iosco must be there about always but whenever there is a global challenge I think that I may say that ioso has to be there in the picture because we are able to deliver a message all around the RO and that was the pleasure to say just after my election by all the iosco board members at cup 27 in charmal Sheek I outline iosco regulatory priorities for sust disclosure mitigating greenwashing and promoting Integrity in carbon mark because the journey is fascinating but it's risky Whenever there is a question but the trust from our fellow citizen from the investor there is a danger about greenwashing and that's the reason why we need also to address and to try to speak the same common language take into account National EST step if you see what happens during cup 27 and cup 28 I have to say we can be proud together of what we have been able to do because much has been achieved in the area of sustainability disclosure over a very short period and with the objective to help you iser investor user preparers Auditors to disclose more efficiently and effectively sustainability related risk opportunities and sustainability targets and to meet the demand of investor and of other stakeholders at the same time because what are you expecting what I am expecting from the financial sector it's not to have any it's not to have an added value about technological Solution that's not the job of the financial sector if there is an added value for the financial sector it's about the capacity of the financial sector to have aned value about how to channel savings to targets companies which are in line with e expectation what does it mean it means in other words that Capital Market have a role to play in allowing companies to raise capital for the transition and a prerequisite therefore is that investor have access to the right information to invest in this company it's about material information to be used by people who would like to invest in companies more than other one this means bringing sufficient trust and integrity to the marketplace so that investor can make informed decision about how to allocate the capital knowing that the likelihood of falling victim to be washing is reduced and since ER leanan the chair of the ifs Foundation announced at cup 26 only two years ago November 2021 in Glasgow the launch of the issb in fact there were two main even during the finance day at this time the launch of Gans by marcar and the launch of the issb by aanan the issb board under the leadership of Emanuel Faber has delivered its first s that's in June 2023 iosco endorsed this in July and I had the pleasure to organize a press conference in Brussels for that with an incredible press coverage as an appropriate Global framework for Capital Mark what does it mean an iOS endorsement we don't have any political legitimacy we are securities regulator I don't have any political legitimacy that that's National level or in Europe for instance Regional level level with the co legisl but the fact that we were able to endorse so fast this toolkit designed by issb means that we called iosco 130 jurisdiction consensus based decision we call on jurisdiction to consider ways in which the jurisdiction might adopt apply or otherwise be informed by the issb framework to promote consistent and comparable climate related and other Systema related disclosure for my expectation ladies and gentlemen is that with some caring Caron at the end of the day ladies and gentlemen more than 130,000 companies all around the ruls reviews the issb framework I repeat 130,000 companies it's a giant step in the history of reporting related to sustainable Finance and this is a real game changer and that's maybe the reason why the Press coverage was a surprise for me Brussels not the place to be for everything all around the world because many journalists were surprised that we were able to go so fast the soas doesn't mean to approve Brindley no we challenge a lot there are some victims on the first row of the challenge uh by uh the iOS of the quality of the dress and they adapt their standards in order to take into account the request coming from ioso this endorsement ladies and gentlemen will put an end to the alphabet soup of climate disclosure and at the same time the issb standard provides the mechanism that address proportionality and promote inability so what does it mean in non-technical standards for me the most important is that the train was able to start on time July and that's the casee but it doesn't mean that the train in all jurisdiction will have the same size and the same speed it's about scalability proportionality but I think that due to the um endorsement of iOS bioscope SSB standards that a number of dediction across continents are in the process of implementing the standards according to the National procedure take into account country specific circumstances and we need to maintain the moment momentum momentum is important as we are discussing about politic aspect and about implementation of new standards we need to maintain the strong momentum while recognizing that the transition will require significant change management and that company May face challenges in firsttime application so my reflection is to say l gentlemen is the speed normal is this normal not at all not at all it's only a two years story we start from scratch in Glasgow with the launch of SSB a which means diversity not only about gender not only about region but also about background people coming from different jurisdiction regulatory aspect New World sustainable Finance from the industry Academy they were able to make Belgium compromise if I may call you that for multilocation they were able to merge with other standard sets like the sasb with a lot of expertise in the US they were able to launch a prototype and then the first two standards S1 and S2 in less than two years everybody who is involved in international discussion know that it's not fast it's very fast and the speed for me that was one of my priorities when I was elected not per se but because I know the same story that f up there are many expectation from John and Mary in the street so we need to deliver on time no what does it mean for the moment iosco has been working with issb on a comprehensive capacity building program aimed at assisting Regulators in their consideration of the use of issb standards and the participation of growing Emerging Market is absolutely key in this regard we also welcome the issb progress to develop an adoption guide to support jurisdiction as they consider implementing its standards further I ISB educational materials will also be useful to help issue apply the standard your concern and my concern if you are the co CFO legal conser of a company it means a lot of capacity building I understand I share your concern one figure if I may I have the pleasure also to be the CE of the Belgium Financial supervisor 400 people in chart of the subvision of the stock exchain market and so on 400 people 7 five of a professional a professional in University degrees I asked to my team to compute how much people how many people I need for sustainable fins 20 20 it's a lot and I know what it means also for listed company Auditors user prepar so it's a common Challenge and that's the reason why we welcome the issb uh progress to develop an option but also capacity build last but not least because it's about trust disclosure need to be trusted which is why we need Global arrangement for independent as audits external audit of this disclosure what does it mean it means that the independent audit standard setting boards in charge of updating the relevant International Technical and ethical standards have made significant progress in recent month they didn't have the choice I challenge that a lot in my capacity as I co chair and there are also track to finalize this in time for the first set of 2024 audited reports again when I had the pleasure to give my first public speech in charmal Che my objective was 2024 to be back to the market the stakeholders with a comprehensive fully fretch toolkit of all what you need in order to ensure Level Playing Field about quality and quantity of information related to financial disclosure I am not sure that so many people in charmal she were convinced by my work many of them would say that's a new that's normous a new chair is very Dynamic of enthusiastic we will see well ladies and gentlemen excellencies I can tell you here we are because it will be there you will have a fully Fletch toolkit in order to file if necessary depends on each ediction decision uh for the filing of the 2024 Ann account sustainability reporting perhaps similar to bance sheet and income statement only offer a snapshot of a company and this is an important building but it's not sufficient for investor interested in companies who have pledge to achieve Net Zero and this is where the importance of transition plan comments transition plan should provide investor with useful information about medium-term plans and the risk and opportunity associated with du plan but is this realistic let us be clear it's a a stepbystep approach only where transition plan provide accurate information and are comparable otherwise they may Foster green washing thereby putting the Integrity of sustainable Finance at risk and eroding the trough of invest what does it mean first let us try and that will be done to speak the same common language with some different accent 130,000 companies it means better quality more data to extract to Giant database public private partnership one example the well-known cdsc I would say objective supported managed by Emanuel Mac and Michael Bloomberg one example of public private so it means the same language at International level better capacity to extract data it means less Problem from a technical point of view of a scope Tre and it means how how to be able to switch to transition plan with robis M so it's a comprehensive Jour step by step same language more data and then how to be able to use that for uh implementing uh transition plan that's for I would say disclosure one last comment if I may ladies and gentlemen let me say um a word about the publication this week of our carbon uh Market consultation report voluntary carbon Market or vcm have gained stantially in importance in recent years but for those Market to succeed they need Integrity both environment and finance Again part of the DNA I would say of iosco how to contribute to our in investor protection and marketing toand we are not coming with rivership principle how to copy and paste principle that we are used to working for the supervision of trading venues Asset Management that's what we aim to explain about a new toolkit related to voluntary carbon market and I believe iosco and his International Market expertise will be key in promoting Financial integrity and the necessary trust to scale this Mark and I encourage all stakeholders to comment on this continent with this let me draw my remark to a close and thank you for your attention