EUROPEAN UNION: EFAMA Urges Appropriate Resolution of Outstanding Issues Relating to the PRIIPs Regulation

Wednesday July 20 2016

The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) has issued a joint statement with other European financial associations requesting that the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) for the PRIIPs Regulation be clear, consistent and fit for purpose.

EFAMA states that, as they currently stand, the RTS will not allow the Key Information Document (KID) to provide consumers with a good understanding and comparative tool of the products on the market. Essential technical issues raised by stakeholders ahead of and during a 11^th July PRIIPs workshop were either not addressed or not clarified at all, leaving market participants with more legal uncertainty less than six months before the application deadline of the PRIIPs Regulation.

Following the adoption of the RTS by the European Commission, it is believed that the Commission and the ESAs are each planning to publish sets of level 3 measures in the form of Q&As to address certain issues. In addition, it is understood that national supervisors are considering publishing national Q&As. The timing of these different sets of Q&As is not yet clear.

EFAMA believes that level 3 measures would not provide the necessary legal certainty to operators and that market participants need full legal clarity in the RTS themselves in order to ensure compliant implementation for their programming, interfaces and designs to allow for a large scale production of PRIIP KIDs.

EFAMA, along with the other European financial associations, strongly urge the Council and European Parliament to request that the outstanding substantial flaws are addressed in the PRIIPs RTS, otherwise industry will not be able to timely and correctly implement the new rules.

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