By Carolina Caro, Audit and Consulting Partner at CCL Auditores Consultores.
Dear Editor,
As reported by DF, this year’s assessment by the Financial Market Commission (CMF) following the implementation of the sustainability standard indicated that 135 entities reported on this matter to comply with General Standard No. 461 issued by the regulator.
However, the evaluation of the reports submitted was not optimal. The regulator noted that there were overly lengthy reports, a wide variety of formats, and a lack of clear, precise, and understandable information. For this reason, the CMF called for compliance with NCG 461 not only in form but also in spirit, in order to obtain useful, high-quality information with data that can be extracted, used, and potentially verified.
Although it is not currently required for this information to be verified by a third party, a good measure to improve and ensure compliance with sustainability standards and climate-related disclosures would be to incorporate professionals who certify the qualitative and quantitative information that must be disclosed in financial statements and annual reports. This, in turn, would ensure compliance with current regulations and, unlike this year, result in disclosed information that is robust, high-quality, and above all aligned with market requirements.