The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) has published CSA Staff Notice 81-334 – ESG-Related Investment Fund Disclosure (Revised) (the revised Staff Notice), which provides updated guidance for investment funds on disclosure practices related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters.
The revised CSA Staff Notice does not change the guidance first published in January 2022; it provides an update, discussing matters not covered in the original notice and reflects developments and issues that have arisen since.
The revised CSA Staff Notice also includes guidance addressing different levels of disclosure expectations for funds whose investment objectives do not reference ESG factors but use ESG strategies. Generally, the level of disclosure is based on the level of ESG factors involved in a fund’s investment process.
While remaining based on existing regulatory requirements, the revised CSA Staff Notice addresses various areas of disclosure, including investment objectives, fund names, investment strategies, risk disclosure, continuous disclosure, and sales communications. It covers the types of investment funds that may market themselves as focusing on ESG or considering ESG factors as part of their investment process.
The revised CSA Staff Notice also summarizes the results from the ESG-focused reviews of prospectuses, sales communications, and continuous disclosure that have been conducted by CSA staff since the original January 2022 publication.
CSA Staff Notice 81-334 – ESG-Related Investment Fund Disclosure (Revised) is available for download from the website of the Ontario Securities Commission.
For more information, please call Barbara Hendrickson at BAX Securities Law (647) 403-4606.
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