TITLE: Brazil's Securities Commission Publishes Study on Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosures in Reference Forms
BODY:
On May 11, 2026, the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), Brazil's securities regulator, published a regulatory outcome assessment study examining environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures in the Reference Form (Formulário de Referência, or FRE). The study evaluates the effectiveness of CVM Resolution 59, which simplified FRE fields and introduced ESG-related disclosure requirements.
The study, conducted by the CVM's Economic Analysis, Risk Management and Integrity Assessment Division (ASA), forms part of the CVM's 2025 Regulatory Agenda, the Sustainable Finance Action Plan (PAFS) 2025–2026, and the Multi-Year Regulatory Outcome Assessment Agenda 2023–2026. The assessment examined whether Resolution 59's transparency requirements effectively addressed information asymmetry between companies and investors on ESG matters.
The study's methodology included: a chronology of ESG regulation in Brazil with international comparisons; consultations with asset managers, representative associations and self-regulatory organisations; a survey of 905 respondents, primarily retail investors; qualitative evaluation of ESG disclosure quality in the FRE; and analysis of access statistics for ESG fields. The study found that while Resolution 59 represented a significant step toward expanding ESG transparency in Brazil's capital markets, access to ESG information through the FRE remains relatively low compared to other information sources.
The regulatory outcome assessment proposes several directives, including: analysing disclosure segments with suboptimal quality; evaluating removal of redundant FRE fields duplicating IFRS S1 and S2 sustainability reporting standards; reducing fragmentation of ESG disclosures by limiting them to International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) standards; and separating ESG from broader corporate governance topics in regulatory reporting.
The full study is available on the CVM website.