The European Commission has adopted guidelines on the application of the Regulation on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs Regulation). The PRIIPs Regulation applies from 1 January 2018.
The guidelines do not contain or create new legal rules. Rather it seeks to further facilitate the implementation of, and the coverage with, the PRIIPs Regulation by smoothing out potential interpretative divergences throughout the EU. It builds on the feedback from stakeholders in a technical workshop on the implementation of PRIIPs organised by the Commission on 11 July 2016 and subsequent queries received by the Commission and the European Supervisory Authorities.
The guidelines cover 19 topics including:
- products covered by the PRIIPs Regulation;
- products made available to retail investors against no consideration;
- multi-option PRIIPs;
- insurance-based investment products with PRIIPs and non-PRIIPs as underlying investment options;
- changes to existing PRIIPs included in the definition of “PRIIP manufacturer”;
- territorial application;
- running offers on 1 January 2018;
- translations of key investor information documents (KIDs);
- a non-PRIIP product offered alongside a PRIIP; and
- ‘on demand’ or ‘real time’ KIDs.