Investment advisers must provide information about ESG products

Dusseldorf From Tuesday, investment advisors must ask their customers about their sustainability preferences and offer them appropriate financial products for their portfolios. This is what new EU rules for the industry envisage.

The EU wants investors to base their investment decisions more on sustainability goals in future, in order to make a contribution to combating climate change.

But the new obligation to make inquiries poses numerous problems for the consulting industry: According to experts, the new, complicated regulations on a topic that is generally difficult to grasp come too early because they have not been fully prepared. In addition, the rules do not apply to tens of thousands of consultants in the country, which causes a lack of understanding even among those affected.

The question of when a financial product is truly sustainable cannot currently be answered with any certainty. On the one hand, important data is missing and, on the other hand, there is no uniform basis for calculation.

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“The Savings Banks have been acting for a month as if the obligation to provide advice already existed,” says investment expert Anke Rezmer in an interview with Handelsblatt Today host Anis Mičijević. The conclusion: The whole thing is too complicated and the consultants “suggest to weaken the rules a bit”.

More: How investment advice should go green

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