On 3 April 2025, the European Parliament voted to postpone the implementation deadlines of two major EU sustainability laws: the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). The motion passed with an overwhelming majority of 531 votes in favor, 69 against, and 17 abstentions, supporting the European Commission’s “stop-the-clock” proposal. This vote, conducted under an urgent procedure, is part of a broader effort to streamline corporate sustainability requirements and reduce compliance burdens on companies. The Council of the EU had already endorsed the delay on 26 March 2025, citing the need to provide businesses with additional time to adapt to the directives. Final formal approval by the Council is expected shortly, after which the adjusted timelines will take effect.

Extended Deadline for Sustainability Reporting (CSRD)

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) mandates companies to make extensive ESG disclosures. The approved delay affects the implementation timeline as follows:

• Large companies' reports delayed by 2 years: Companies defined as “large” under CSRD will now begin reporting on the financial year 2027, with the first sustainability reports published in 2028. Previously, these companies were expected to commence reporting for the financial year 2025, with reports published in 2026.
• Listed SMEs granted additional time: Listed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other qualifying small companies will commence CSRD reporting one year later than initially scheduled, covering their financial year 2028 data in reports published in 2029. Under the original plan, these SMEs were to begin reporting for the financial year 2027, with an option to opt out until 2028.

Companies already within the scope of EU sustainability reporting (large public-interest entities under the previous Non-Financial Reporting Directive) are largely unaffected by this delay and have begun reporting for the financial year 2024 as planned. For the rest of the corporate sector, the CSRD’s effective start is deferred, providing additional time to build reporting systems and comply with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The European Commission has tasked the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) with simplifying and streamlining the reporting standards by late October 2025, enabling companies to adopt a more manageable set of disclosures when reporting begins.

One-Year Postponement for Due Diligence Rules (CSDDD)

The Parliament’s vote also extends the timeline for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), an EU law requiring companies to identify and mitigate human rights and environmental impacts in their operations and supply chains. The adopted delay includes:

• Transportation deadline extended: EU Member States now have until 26 July 2027 to transpose the CSDDD into national law, a one-year extension from the original July 2026 deadline. This extension allows governments to pass national legislation implementing the due diligence requirements.
• First corporate compliance phase delayed to 2028: The initial wave of companies subject to the CSDDD will have an additional year before the rules apply. Large EU firms with over 5,000 employees and €1.5 billion+ in turnover (and non-EU companies with equivalent EU turnover) must begin complying in July 2028 rather than 2027. Notably, this July 2028 phase will also cover companies with over 3,000 employees and €900 million turnover, effectively merging the directive’s first two implementation waves into one timeline.
• Subsequent phase in 2029: The next set of in-scope companies, including those with ≥1,000 employees and €450 million in turnover, are expected to come under the CSDDD by July 2029 as previously scheduled. The overall phase-in period is compressed into two stages (2028 and 2029) rather than spanning 2027–2029. This compressed rollout means the largest companies gain a one-year reprieve, while the smaller large companies will enter only slightly later than initially planned.
  

Next Steps

While this vote confirms a delay in implementation, negotiations regarding bigger changes to the laws (updating the reporting standards and the scope of companies affected) are still in their early stages. Those negotiations include exempting an estimated 80% of the companies initially covered by only applying these regulations only to firms with more than 1,000 employees. We delve deeper into these developments in our recent summary of the Omnibus initiative.

About SESAMm

SESAMm is a global leader in ESG controversy data, using advanced Generative AI. We automate monitoring and due diligence on public and private assets, providing coverage of more than 5 million companies. Our clients include companies like Carlyle, Warburg, Natixis, RBI, Fitch, Oddo, and more. SESAMm has raised $50M from renowned investors and operates across 4 continents.
Discover how we can help your team uncover ESG and reputational risks in seconds. Reques a free trial here.

Sources

• European Parliament Press Release:  Parlement Européen
• Reuters Article on EU Parliament Vote:  Reuters
• EFRAG Announcement on ESRS Simplification:  EFRAG

SESAMm’s AI Technology Reveals ESG Insights

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SESAMm Incorporates Generative AI to Enhance ESG Risk Mitigation and Process Efficiency in the Finance Sector

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PARIS, France - July 12, 2023 - SESAMm, a leading player in financial technology, announces a transformative initiative to incorporate Generative AI solutions into its operations and product offerings. This strategic move is geared towards assisting financial firms in enhancing risk mitigation focused on ESG controversies and streamlining their processes.

The implementation of Generative AI follows a three-pronged strategic approach. This comprises the integration of large language models into their tech stack, the development of a client-facing conversational agent, and fostering a culture of AI utilization across all teams.

"With Generative AI, we are not only enhancing our internal processes but also focusing on the development of new features that redefine industry standards," stated Sylvain Forté, CEO & Co-founder of SESAMm. "These include intuitive dashboards, automated ESG/SDG event analysis tools, and a client interaction chatbot - all created to streamline data interaction and boost efficiency in risk management."

The integration of Generative AI has significantly enhanced SESAMm's product functionality already. This includes quicker and more intuitive interaction with data and introducing new features, such as ESG/SDG event summarization and automatic competitor searches for public and private companies.

SESAMm is also employing Generative AI for advanced risk mitigation. "Our innovative approach provides our clients a virtual team of ESG analysts and experts for detecting risk and ESG controversies, enhancing their risk mitigation strategies in a robust and comprehensive manner," Forté added.

SESAMm is preparing to launch a suite of AI-powered features later this year. "These new features, powered by Generative AI, reinforce our commitment to developing solutions that enhance risk mitigation and streamline processes for financial firms," Forté emphasized.

To explore more about SESAMm's Generative AI solutions and how they can boost your firm's operations, watch the video below:

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Also, make sure you join our upcoming webinar, where Sylvain Forté will discuss live the future of fintech with Generative AI and how SESAMm is incorporating Generative AI into its processes and products. To register for the webinar, click here.

About SESAMm

SESAMm is a leading artificial intelligence and NLP (natural language processing) technology company serving global investment firms, corporations, and investors, such as asset managers, banks, private equity firms, hedge funds, and index providers. With over 100 employees and six offices worldwide, SESAMm celebrated its 9th anniversary in 2023.

Contact: contact@sesamm.com

Client: Raiffeisen Bank International

Industry: Corporate Banking and Finance

Location: Austria

Use case: ESG alerts and monitoring

SESAMm solution: TextReveal^® API and Dashboards

Introduction

Raiffeisen Bank International’s (RBI) Advanced Analytics and AI Tribe is crucial to the bank’s operations. The team delivers, maintains, and operates AA&AI (digital) solutions allowing Retail and Whole-Sale Banking to increase revenues (and to fulfill their role as the first line of defense). They are pioneers in using cloud-based infrastructure. With more than 50 data scientists, data engineers, machine learning engineers, and cloud engineers, they play a crucial role in transforming RBI into a data-driven company.

The AA&AI tribe at RBI recognized a significant opportunity in SESAMm, a leading AI-powered analytics, and data solutions provider. SESAMm’s solutions offer access to an extensive range of web-based information, which is otherwise challenging to obtain. This data is critical for RBI’s operations, enabling the bank to stay ahead of the curve regarding market trends, consumer preferences, and industry insights.

Key successes for RBI after working with SESAMm include:

• Generated analytics on clients to specifically monitor companies exposed to the Ukraine war, enabling the bank to proactively identify potential risks and minimize its exposure to geopolitical events.
• Integrated specific languages within RBI’s core market, including Russian, Romanian, Slovak, Czech, and Polish, improving the bank’s ability to analyze and understand regional data.
• Integrated SESAMm’s data with RBI’s internal visualization dashboard, allowing the bank to leverage the insights generated by SESAMm’s AI-powered analytics to improve decision-making and drive business growth.

Why RBI chose SESAMm: Coverage, early warning signals, and customizability

Raiffeisen Bank International decided to partner with SESAMm due to several key factors:

1. SESAMm’s excellent coverage, including that of the CEE market, is a crucial need for RBI. This coverage enables RBI to obtain critical data and insights that help inform the bank’s decision-making process.
2. SESAMm’s product, TextReveal API, provides data and the underlying natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, enabling RBI to analyze data at a deeper level. This capability is significant for the bank’s operations in the CEE region, where multiple languages are spoken.
3. The relationship built between SESAMm and the RBI team during the proofs-of-concept (PoCs) brought confidence in the quality of SESAMm’s products and the potential value they could bring to the bank.
   
   Overall, the combination of SESAMm’s excellent coverage of the CEE market, NLP capabilities, and positive relationship with the RBI team made them the ideal partner for the bank’s data and analytics needs.

The Collaboration

After SESAMm and Raiffeisen Bank International agreed to collaborate, SESAMm began working with David Eschwé, the Head of Group Advanced Analytics at RBI. SESAMm onboarded the RBI team on TextReveal API and opened dashboards and API access to RBI. This access allowed RBI to generate historical datasets. SESAMm worked with the RBI team to define the roadmap and key milestones, particularly for integrating Central and Eastern European languages. This enabled RBI to access critical information efficiently that could help their internal teams generate early warning signals to better mitigate potential risks that can harm the bank. By working closely together, SESAMm and RBI achieved key milestones, demonstrating the value of the collaboration to both parties.

The results

By leveraging SESAMm’s solutions, RBI was able to monitor more than 1,000 clients, generating analytics on companies exposed to the Ukraine war and creating early warning signals to mitigate better potential risks that could harm the bank. Additionally, SESAMm’s solutions provide substantial yearly savings in raw-data-related costs, allowing RBI to allocate resources more efficiently and effectively. Through this collaboration, SESAMm helped RBI achieve more significant insights into their data, improve their risk management processes, and achieve considerable cost savings.

"Our partnership has been a great success. Thanks to SESAMm, we can now answer business-relevant questions within days, including those related to the critical topic of ESG” —David Eschwé, Head of Group Advanced Analytics in RBI.

About Raiffeisen Bank International

Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI) is a leading Austrian banking group that operates across Central and Eastern Europe. It is headquartered in Vienna, Austria. RBI offers a wide range of banking and financial services, including corporate and investment banking, retail banking, leasing, and asset management. With a focus on sustainability and social responsibility, RBI is committed to providing high-quality banking services while supporting the communities in which it operates.

Reach out to SESAMm

Whether you’re a financial institution, an asset manager, or a data-driven company looking to gain insights into your data, SESAMm’s technology and team of experts can help you achieve your goals.