EBA hits pause on some ESG disclosures
The European Banking Authority (EBA) has issued a no-action letter telling supervisors not to prioritise enforcement of several ESG Pillar 3 templates, or at least until the new rules settle. The reason? Legal grey zones and practical headaches as Europe’s disclosure framework shifts under the Omnibus legislative package.
In plain English: banks won’t be chased over templates EU 6 to 10 (and parts of Templates 1 and 4) for now. That applies both to large listed institutions and to the wider pool of banks newly caught by Capital Requirements Regulation Article 449a. At the same time, the EBA’s updated ESG dashboard shows little movement in risk exposure: a reminder that climate and transition risks tend to play out over decades, not quarters.
This is less about lowering the bar and more about avoiding chaos. Forcing banks to fill in templates that regulators already know are being rewritten would be box-ticking of the most unhelpful kind. By stepping back, the EBA is trying to keep reporting credible while buying time for a more streamlined, coherent framework. The goal is clarity – which requires stable, consistently applied standards.
The full no-action letter and updated dashboard are available here.
