On 18 December 2025, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU issued press releases stating that they have come to an informal agreement regarding the Retail Investment Strategy package.
The package covers a number of areas and are designed to empower and protect consumers when they invest and help foster trust and increase competitiveness in the EU’s financial markets.
The package comprises of a draft Directive as regards the EU retail investor protection rules. This Omnibus Directive amends the EU retail investor protection framework set out in the:
- Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II.
- Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive.
- Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive.
- Directive on the provision of insurance or reinsurance distribution services to third parties.
- Directive on the taking-up and pursuit of the business of Insurance and Reinsurance.
Accompanying the Omnibus Directive is a proposed Regulation which amends the Regulation on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs).
The European Parliament’s press release states the following regarding value for money and comparable financial products:
‘To facilitate comparison of insurance-based investment products, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) should develop supervisory benchmarks (a statistical measure, calculated from a representative set of data). These benchmarks can be used by national competent authorities (NCAs) as a reference for supervising value for money.
In addition, investment firms would be required to assess the value for money of their products against peer groups that include a representative number of similar financial instruments.’
As regards professional clients, the Council’s press release states:
‘The updated framework will allow more retail investors to be treated as professional clients.
Such investors will still need to fulfil two out of three criteria to be considered professional:
they carried out 15 significant transactions over the last three years, 30 transactions over the previous year, or 10 transactions over €30,000 in unlisted companies over the last five years (in existing legislation this criterion currently stipulates 10 transactions per quarter over the previous four quarters)
the size of their portfolio has exceeded €250,000 on average over the last three years (currently €500,000 at the moment of their request for exemption)
they have worked and carried out related activities in the financial sector for at least one year or, in a newly added alternative criterion, can provide proof of education or training in these activities and an ability to evaluate risk.’
However, the training and education alternative criterion may not be combined with the portfolio criterion to qualify an investor for an exemption.
The Council’s press release states that technical work will now continue to finalise the legal texts early in 2026. Member States will have to transpose the new rules 24 months following their publication in the Official Journal of the EU. They will start applying 30 months following their publication, with the exception of the new rules under PRIIPs which would start applying 18 months following their publication.