On 27 January 2022, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) issued a consultation paper on draft guidelines on certain aspects of the MiFID II suitability requirements. In particular the draft guidelines build on the text of the 2018 ESMA guidelines which are now being reviewed following the adoption by the European Commission of the changes to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/565 to integrate sustainability factors, risk and preferences into certain organisational requirements and operating conditions for investment firms.

The draft guidelines are set out in Annex III of the consultation paper. In order to facilitate readability, the paragraphs of the guidelines that have been updated in the review have been underlined by ESMA. The other non-underlined paragraphs of the guidelines have remained unchanged compared to the 2018 version.

The deadline for comments on the consultation is 27 April 2022. ESMA will consider the feedback it receives to the consultation in Q2 2022 and expects to publish a final report in Q3 2022.