This page is under development 

What is SDR? 

The FCA’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels regime is a package of measures introduced in November 2023.  The new rules are primarily designed to improve transparency and trust in retail funds that are promoted as having sustainability (and related) strategies.

Its core elements are:

Note: these rules are new and do not yet apply to all funds.  There are areas that are still being worked through. For example, the rules for portfolio managers and offshore funds are not yet known but are expected to follow in 2025.  There are also funds that we expect to receive labels that have not yet done so.  Please expect this area to evolve over time.

Where can I find further information on SDR?

We have been keeping tabs on SDR developments on our blogs, which include both FCA news and our own commentary.  

The most important current links to FCA information are listed below:

• The FCA’s SDR Policy Statement is linked here ( PS23/16: Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels | FCA) – published on 28 November 2023.
• There is a lot happening in SDR and related areas at the moment.  We track these in our blog area, using the ‘SDR’ tag.
• The FCA is publishing additional updates here  FCA’s responses to SDR queries
• FCA ESG Handbook  ESG Handbook includes more granular information.
• About Greenwash – link to FCA anti-greenwash announcement and portfolio consultation link (April 2024)
• Client facing label information (to be published by relevant fund providers – follow link)
• Information about the Adviser Sustainability Group 

What information does Fund EcoMarket show about fund labelling?

Fund EcoMarket includes SDR related information both within individual fund entries (where applicable) and with/supplied in our filter options.

You can use Fund EcoMarket to generate a list of funds that have chose to adopt an SDR label, as well as to identify those that can not, or have chosen not to do so.  Fund EcoMarket is free to use thanks to our fund manager partners (funds listed first with logos).

See: ‘SDR labelling’ filter in the ‘Fund Basics’ area of the Fund EcoMarket database.

SDR Presentations & Videos

We discussed SDR extensively at our most recent conference, on 3 October 2024.

This included presentations from the FCA’s Director of ESG Sacha Sadan and three groups of fund managers exploring different aspects of the new rules.

See SDR presentations and panels discussions here.

In January 2024 we also published a brief introduction to the new rules:

Further commentary to follow.

Other relevant areas include:

• PRIN 2A
•  Overseas fund regime update July 2024
• FCA ESG Handbook – (sourcebook updated post SDR) eg:

• • 5.1, 5.2 & 5.3 Preparation of sustainability disclosures
  • 5.4 Labels 
  • 5.5 Sustainability product reporting
• FCA welcomes ESG ratings and data provider code of conduct December 2023
• FCA Regulatory Initiatives Grid 30 November 2023
• FCA Financial Lives Survey (2022 FLS)