MEDIA RELEASE

International Organization of Securities Commissions
Organisation internationale des commissions de valeurs
Organização Internacional das Comissões de Valores
Organización Internacional de Comisiones de Valores‫اﻟﻣنظﻣﺔ اﻟدوﻟﯾﺔ ﻟﮭﯾﺋﺎت اأﻟوراق اﻟﻣﺎﻟﯾﺔ‬IOSCO/MR/19/2023
Madrid, 25 July 2023
IOSCO endorses the ISSB’s Sustainability-related Financial Disclosures Standards
In a major step towards consistent, comparable and reliable sustainability information, IOSCO
announces today that it has decided to endorse the sustainability-related financial disclosures
standards, recently issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), IFRS S1 andIFRS S2.
IOSCO has engaged extensively with the ISSB over the last two years, culminating in acomprehensive and independent review of the final ISSB Standards. After a detailed analysis,
IOSCO has determined that the ISSB Standards are appropriate to serve as a global framework forcapital markets to develop the use of sustainability-related financial information in both capitalraising and trading and for the purpose of helping globally integrated financial markets accurately
assess relevant sustainability risks and opportunities.
IOSCO now calls on its 130 member jurisdictions, regulating more than 95% of the world's
financial markets, to consider ways in which they might adopt, apply or otherwise be informed by
the ISSB Standards within the context of their jurisdictional arrangements, in a way that promotes
consistent and comparable climate-related and other sustainability-related disclosures forinvestors.
Jean-Paul Servais, Chair of the Board of IOSCO, commented: “This is a critical moment inadvancing IOSCO’s goal of improving climate-risk disclosure for investors. Investors aredemanding better information about sustainability risks and opportunities, and the G20, the G7,
and the FSB rely on IOSCO to assess whether the ISSB Standards are fit for purpose for capitalmarkets. Our members, working together, have carefully analysed the ISSB’s standards against
IOSCO’s endorsement criteria. IOSCO has found that the ISSB conducted a robust process andhave concluded that these standards serve as an effective and proportionate global framework ofinvestor-focused disclosures on sustainability- and climate-related risks and opportunities. At thebeginning of my mandate as Chairman, I said IOSCO would meet expectations because thedelivery of high quality standards in due time is of the essence when it comes to sustainability.
Today, with the publication of the endorsement decision, I am honoured to say we did just that.”1Rodrigo Buenaventura, Chair of IOSCO’s Sustainable Finance Task Force, added: “Thepublication of this endorsement is the result of truly global efforts. On the one hand the ISSB andthe IFRS Foundation have ensured that the final standards are the result of broad stakeholder
input. On the other hand, this endorsement by IOSCO is an important milestone that we expect
will result in global capital markets being able to access reliable, consistent and comparable
sustainability related information which will allow investors to price sustainability risks andopportunities and help them make investment decisions.”
Today’s endorsement of the ISSB Standards is in line with IOSCO’s objective to achieve acomprehensive toolkit for both sustainability-related disclosure and related assurance standards
that should be available to jurisdictions and ready for use by issuers for the end-2024 accounts.
In this regard, IOSCO welcomes the IFRS Foundation’s “The jurisdictional journey toimplementing IFRS S1 and IFRS S2—Adoption Guide overview” published today. It provides anoutline of a forthcoming Adoption Guide that will set out pathways for implementation of the ISSB
Standards. IOSCO is committed to working closely with the ISSB, other relevant bodies, andIOSCO members to promote consistent and comparable climate-related and other sustainabilityrelated disclosures for investors through the roll out of a comprehensive capacity building
programme.

NOTES TO THE EDITORS
1. The Standards that IOSCO has endorsed are the IFRS S1 General Requirements forDisclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and the IFRS S2 Climate-relatedDisclosures issued in their final version on 26th June 2023 after an 18 month drafting
process and available here. IFRS S1 provides a set of disclosure requirements designed toenable companies to communicate to investors about the sustainability-related risks andopportunities they face over the short, medium and long term. IFRS S2 sets out specificclimate-related disclosures and is designed to be used with IFRS S1.
2. The International Sustainability Standards Board is an independent Board set up within theIFRS Foundation in order to develop standards for the disclosure by companies ofinformation relating to sustainability-related risks and opportunities. The first detailed
standard relates to climate. It will now turn to consider disclosure of other sustainability
issues.
3. The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation created to serve the public interest by
developing globally accepted financial reporting standards that meet investors and othercapital market participants’ need for reliable, transparent and comparable information to
make economic decisions. Its standards―IFRS Accounting Standards and IFRS
Sustainability Disclosure Standards—are developed by the International AccountingStandards Board (IASB) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Theboards are overseen by the IFRS Foundation Trustees, who in turn are accountable to theIFRS Foundation Monitoring Board of public authorities with responsibility for corporate2reporting. Its governance arrangements are set out in its Constitution. IFRS AccountingStandards, set by the IASB, are required in more than 140 jurisdictions. IOSCO endorsed
its accounting standards in 2000, after which they were widely adopted across the globe.
4. IOSCO has published a report of its technical assessment which is available here.
5. IOSCO is the leading international policy forum for securities regulators and is recognized
as the global standard setter for securities regulation. The organization's membershipregulates more than 95% of the world's securities markets in some 130 jurisdictions, and it
continues to expand.
6. The IOSCO Board is the governing and standard-setting body of IOSCO and is made up of
35 securities regulators. Mr. Jean-Paul Servais, the Chair of Belgium’s Financial Services
and Markets Authority (FSMA) is the Chair of the IOSCO Board. The members of theIOSCO Board are the securities regulatory authorities of Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh,Belgium, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy,Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Oman,Ontario, Peru, Quebec, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, theUnited Kingdom and the United States of America (both the U.S. Commodity Futures
Trading Commission and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission). The Chair of theEuropean Securities and Markets Authority and the Chair of IOSCO´s Affiliate Members
Consultative Committee are also observers.
7. The Growth and Emerging Markets (GEM) Committee is the largest committee within
IOSCO, representing more than 75% per cent of the IOSCO membership, including ten ofthe G20 members. Dr Mohamed Farid Saleh, Executive Chairman of the FinancialRegulatory Authority, Egypt is Chair of the GEM Committee. The committee brings
members from growth and emerging markets together and communicates members’ views
and facilitates their contribution across IOSCO and at other global regulatory discussions.
The GEM Committee’s strategic priorities are focused, amongst others, on risks andvulnerabilities assessments, policy and development work affecting emerging markets, andregulatory capacity building.
8. IOSCO aims through its permanent structures:•to cooperate in developing, implementing and promoting internationally recognized andconsistent standards of regulation, oversight and enforcement to protect investors,
maintain fair, efficient and transparent markets, and seek to address systemic risks;•to enhance investor protection and promote investor confidence in the integrity ofsecurities markets, through strengthened information exchange and cooperation inenforcement against misconduct and in supervision of markets and market
intermediaries; and3

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to exchange information at both global and regional levels on their respective
experiences to assist the development of markets, strengthen market infrastructure andimplement appropriate regulation.

MEDIA ENQUIRIESCarlta Vitzthum
Email:
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+ 34 697 449 639
carlta@iosco.org
www.iosco.org

Jim Lannoo
Email:+32 2 220 57 06
press@fsma.be4