The Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) has published a letter in response to the European Commission’s (Commission) intention to amend the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) that the ESAs submitted under Articles 8(5), 10(2) and 13(5) of the Regulation on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products.

The letter explains that the boards of the European Banking Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority had approved the amendments on the basis of qualified majority voting. However, the amendments did not receive the support of a qualified majority of the board of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority as there were differing views expressed regarding the treatment of multi-option products, the criteria to determine whether a comprehension alert should be included in a key information document, and the provisions in the RTS on the credit risk mitigation factors for insurers. Consequently, the three ESAs are not in the position to provide  an agreed opinion on the amended draft RTS.

The letter goes on to state that there was also a general consensus during the discussion within each ESA board that the amendments to the performance scenarios raised comprehension issues and may be misleading. The ESAs summarise in the letter the main concerns on this topic.

The ESAs state that they remain at the Commission’s disposal to conduct further work on amendments to the RTS, or to provide any further clarification.

View Joint Committee of ESAs responds to European Commission on proposed amendments to PRIIPs rules, 23 December 2016