The LSFI is not a regulatory, public affairs or advisory entity, and thus does not comment or issue statements on the regulation. However, following our awareness-raising mission, the LSFI follows and informs neutrally about the latest EU and Luxembourg regulatory updates on our website, newsletter and social media and organises webinars.

In addition, LSFI launched, just after the Assembly, a website section on EU sustainable finance regulation dedicated to help financial professionals understand and stay up to date on this topic in a simplified way. French and German versions will be launched and a new page on IDD developed in the next months.

To foster coordination and synergies and help the sector advance at speed, the LSFI acts as a central point of contact among all sustainable finance actors. In particular, LSFI holds regular operating committees within industries; has continuous bilateral exchanges with its stakeholders such as the financial associations, companies representatives, civil society and other sustainable finance actors; runs cross-sectoral working groups; and occasionally organises roundtables.

In addition, the LSFI will also:

• Coordinate the Women in Finance Charter data collection and reporting.
• Actively participate in industry working groups.
• Take part at the international level in forums and networks, such as Eurosif and FC4S, with the twofold aim of representing and showcasing Luxembourg, and exploring best practices across jurisdictions.

The LSFI is currently running a working group focused on Climate Measurement and Reporting to analyse and propose practical climate measurement and reporting tools and methodologies for Luxembourg financial institutions. Its outcome is expected to be released in Q4 2023.

In addition, the LSFI will:

• Contribute to upskilling and guiding the financial industry in its decarbonisation pathway with the support of the conclusions of the above-mentioned working group.
• Run in Q4 2023 the ESG Data working group. It will focus on addressing ESG data challenges by providing explanations and sector guidance.
• Conduct the 2023 Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Study to be published in Q4 2023. The study will update the data points covered in the 2022 edition and enlarge its scope following the increased data availability and the latest regulatory and market updates.

The LSFI has run a working group on Training and Education to strengthen Luxembourg’s financial sector players’ sustainable finance skills and competencies on sustainable finance. The working group members reached their first conclusion in June 2023. The whitepaper “Sustainable Finance Training Needs & Gap Analysis in the Luxembourg Financial Sector” describes the analysis and the findings of the working group research.

We also collaborate with Luxembourg education and research centres, acting as a connecting entity between academia, research and industry (dedicated meetings, webinars, joint projects…).

To strengthen its activities in this regard, the LSFI will also:

• Support the financial sector and the training institutions to cover the identified training gaps existent in Luxembourg, such as “How to sell and/or market an ESG product?”, “Impact Investing, Inclusive Finance, and Blended Capital”.
• Reconvene the Education and Training working group in six months to ensure its outcome’s accuracy and follow developments in the training market.
• Continue updating the LSFI Take Action section on Training every 6 months (see Toolkits and Knowledge sharing section for more information).

The LSFI has an online toolkit called Take Action dedicated to instruments, training and regulation on its website. The toolkit aims to provide useful and structured information in a comprehensive but easily accessible way[2]. The LSFI also publishes whitepapers to nurture a knowledgeable sustainable finance community (e.g., blended finance).

Going forward, the LSFI will:

• Keep the LSFI Take Action Instruments and Training toolkit updated every 6 months; and the regulation part as new updates emerge.
• Develop new sections within the Take Action toolkit on labels, retail investing and blended finance.
• Issue whitepaper on Biodiversity (following the Masterclass planned in November).
• Organise masterclasses to upskill Luxembourg financial professionals, providing practical support to challenges and gaps on Biodiversity and Human Rights, among others.

[1] In particular, the Instruments section provides a unique and comprehensive list of Initiatives, Frameworks, Standards and Tools that can support the financial sector’s transition. The Training section includes a list of sustainable finance training in Luxembourg and neighbouring countries; and the Regulation one provides an overview of seven major sustainable finance legislative pieces, giving definitions, responding to key questions and gathering dates and links.

The LSFI constantly engages in awareness raising activities independently or in partnership with various stakeholders and is open to further collaborations.

The LSFI will continue developing the below awareness-raising activities:

• Maintain relevant sources of information, such as the website, newsletter or LinkedIn page, by weekly gathering news, events, regulatory updates and publications.
• Organise and co-organise awareness-raising sessions on sustainable finance across different sectors and targets such as schools, companies and start-ups.
• Organise and co-organise technical webinars targeting financial professionals. The LSFI partners with the University of Luxembourg, and is open to further collaborations.
• Participate in presentations, speaking slots and conferences, both at national and international level.

In the following months, the LSFI will explore the possibility of assuming the coordination of the Luxembourg Scientific Advisory Board currently hosted by Spuerkeess. It is under discussion what the next steps will be to ensure the best governance is set. The SAB aims to leverage a knowledgeable and experienced community of scientists to advance sustainable finance.

The Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Strategy was published in February 2021, and the LSFI is currently focused on implementing its action plan, particularly the medium-term objectives. The Strategy/LSFI Action Plan update is foreseen in the mid-term (2024).

The above document is the official follow-up of the second LSFI Stakeholder Assembly that took place on 4th July. It outlines the main activities that the Initiative will perform throughout 2023 and 2024 in response to Stakeholders’ priorities and challenges, as well as following an extensive mapping of the sustainable finance ecosystem; it also aims to address existing gaps. It is also a working document that will be adapted to the needs. Should other priorities arise, the foreseen timelines and deadlines might be modified on exceptional occasions. This document can be publicly distributed.