EU Parliament approves 1-year delay On 1st December 2016, the European Parliament voted to support a 1-year delay of the implementation of the Regulation (EU) No. 1286/2014 on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) (“PRIIPs Regulation” or “Regulation”). The application of the long debated obligation of investment companies to to create, maintain and distribute an investor-friendly document to retail clients (“KID”) in connection with investment products packaged in various wrappers, is therefore postponed until 1 January 2018. The postponement follows the rejection by the European Parliament of the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) adopted by the European Commission in June 2016 concerning form, content and methodology of the KID and the subsequent request to the same Commission to submit new draft RTS addressing these concerns. The European Parliament was mainly concerned about some controversial aspects of the content of the KID (among others the replacement of past performance metrics with future performance scenarios), which made it inadequate to protect investors. The Parliament expects the Commission to propose a new delegated act on regulatory technical standards in 2017. If the new standards will be accepted by Parliament and Council, the PRIIPs legislation will become applicable as from 1 January 2018, in line with the postponed application of MiFID 2. The provisional edition of the relevant regulation is available here. Implementation in Italy While the technical aspects are being discussed at EU level, the Italian Government moved on in the implementation of the PRIIPs Regulation and, on 28 November 2016, published Legislative Decree No. 224 of 14 November 2016 (the “Decree”), in order to adapt the national law to its requirements within the implementation window of two years after the entering into force of the Regulation (29 December 2014). The choice to frame this legislation as a regulation (directly effective upon EU citizens and businesses) reduces the scope of the implementing legislation at national level, for the sake of a greater harmonisation and level playing field. As a consequence, the amendments to the Italian Financial Act introduced by the Decree are basically confined to the intervention powers of the competent authorities (which anyway represent a key factor impacting the development of the domestic market of each Member State). In particular, the following provisions have been introduced: The Decree, in Italian language only, can be found here. At the outset of PRIIPs, there was only one certainty: it was going to be a massive project, given its cross-sector intruding impact. The time is confirming this belief, but PRIIPs regime is almost there and investment firms should not slow down the efforts to put in place adequate measures to be ready to comply with KID obligation. We remain at your disposal for any assistance you may need through such process. Contacts: Vito Vittore Elena Pagnoni Luigi Bonifacio
Senior Partner
Of counsel
Associate
PRIIPs: recent developments in EU and Italy
[Newsflash n. 20]
About the Author: Legália
