Financial advisers will struggle to meet MiFID II sustainability obligations due to patchy data

Lack of product comparability

Financial advisers will struggle to fulfil the sustainability obligations of the amended MiFID II regulation due to patchy data and a lack of direct comparability between products, Morningstar research shows.

From 2 August 2022, the amended MiFID II will require financial advisers to consider clients' sustainability preferences when conducting suitability assessments. If clients express an interest in making sustainable investments, advisers will have to accommodate. Depending on the specific client's preferences, advisers will have to source products that have a minimum proportion of sustainable investments as defined by the SFDR or the EU Taxonomy. However, advisers will face challenges when trying to find suitable sustainability-labelled products for clients, given that asset managers a...