The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) in Taiwan will be requiring asset managers to disclose ESG-related information for newly launched ESG funds, in a move to prevent greenwashing, according to a statement from the regulator.
The FSC expects to announce the details in July, Chang Chen-Shan, director general of FSC’s securities and futures bureau, said in the statement.
Firms will have to disclose their ESG principles, as well as how ESG is embedded in their investment process. At least 60% of a fund’s assets should be in ESG assets for a fund to be labelled as an ESG product.
Assets of ESG funds in Taiwan surged 336% to $2.9bn with $1.7bn in net inflows in 2020, according to data from Morningstar Direct. There are around 24 locally domiciled ESG funds in the market, 11 of which were launched last year.
Taiwan’s new regulations may follow the disclosure rules set by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Chang said. The SFC set disclosure requirements for ESG funds in April 2019 and has published on its website the list of products that meet the new disclosure rules.
