On 27 February 2020, the European Commission published its final report concerning the consumer testing study of retail investors’ preferred option regarding performance scenarios and past performance information within the key information document (KID) under the packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) framework.

The results of the consumer test of performance scenarios in the KID will feed into the European Supervisory Authorities’ review of the PRIIPs Delegated Regulation. Therefore, the general objective of the project was to test the effectiveness of different content and formats for presenting information on past performance and potential future performance of PRIIPs so that this information can be as useful and as well understood as possible by retail investors.

The report concludes that although the results of the consumer test suggest that the final investment decision is not affected by the version of the KID, the results show that the design of the KID can play an important role in aiding consumers’ understanding of the features of the retail investment products and in contributing to better informed financial decision-making.