The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) will take an "supportive" approach with financial organisations having to meet upcoming standards for the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions.
File image. Photo: onas Walzberg / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
The Financial Sector (Climate-related Disclosures and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which was passed last month, will require about 200 large organisations to keep records and report annual progress on climate change emission reductions.
These organisations include large listed issuers of equity securities or debt securities, valued over $60 million, as well as registered banks, credit unions, and building societies with total assets over $1 billion, and insurers and big registered fund managers of similar magnitude.
The first of the reports will cover the period to 31 December 2022 and will be due by April 2024.
The FMA expected the reports would attract a high degree of public interest, and was recruiting a team to manage the new requirements.
FMA director of capital markets Sarah Vrede said the initial focus would be on serious misconduct, as organisations develop more experience with the new requirements.
"The FMA is likely to take a very supportive approach as we typically do with new regimes," she said, adding that initial enforcement would focus on such things as failure to file a statement or reports which were clearly false or misleading.