On 1 October 2018, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) co-published a response to the European Commission’s request to develop guidance on facilitating the production and distribution of information on investment funds as of 1 January 2020.

The ESAs state that they are still of the view that an approach whereby retail investors will receive both PRIIPs key information documents (PRIIPs KID) and UCITS key information documents (UCITS KID) as of 1 January 2020, is not satisfactory and risks undermining the aims of the PRIIPs Regulation. The ESAs warn that receiving overlapping disclosure documents could deter investors from using them rather than facilitating informed investment decision making. In addition, the ESAs are not convinced that from the perspective of the retail investor, the UCITS KID information can be effectively articulated together with the PRIIPs KID information.

The ESAs argue that other solutions are needed including legislative changes to avoid a situation where there are duplicative information requirements from 1 January 2020. In addition, the ESAs call for a targeted review of the PRIIPs Delegated Regulation 2017/653.