Why is sustainable finance relevant to SFMA?

SFMA's mandate includes protecting financial market clients, as well as safeguarding the proper functioning of the financial markets. In the arena of sustainability, SFMA therefore focuses on climate-related and other nature-related financial risks affecting supervised institutions, as well as combating greenwashing practices. Beyond this, SFMA has no mandate to promote sustainable investments or to actively steer financial flows.

Climate-related risks and other nature-related risks are generally on the rise and are already to some extent affecting the financial markets today. Financial institutions must adequately take these financial risks into account. At the same time, financial market clients face the risk of greenwashing practices in the offering of financial products and services with sustainability-related features. For this reason, SFMA places a particular supervisory focus on these two areas:

No mandate to promote sustainable financial flows

SFMA's mandate in the area of sustainable finance also has its limits. In particular, it has no mandate to promote sustainable financial products or services. It only contributes to sustainable financial flows by ensuring that financial institutions adequately identify, measure and manage all material nature-related financial risks, as well as by combating greenwashing practices by financial institutions.

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