A guide to preparing, producing and distributing KIDs for PRIIPs

What are PRIIPs?

Packaged Retail Investment and Insurance-backed Products (PRIIPs) come in a variety of different forms, according to the European Commission’s description they share a number of common characteristics in that “They typically combine exposures to multiple underlying assets; they are designed to deliver capital accumulation over a medium- to long-term investment period; they entail a degree of investment risk, although some provide capital guarantees; and they are normally marketed directly to retail investors. Broadly speaking, they can be categorised into four groups: investment funds, insurance-based investment products, retail structured securities and structured term deposits.”

In July 2012 the the European Commission published three legislative proposals which together are designed to improve consumer protection in relation to investment products. The first proposal is to amend the existing UCITS Directive (Undertakings for the Collective Investment in Transferable Securities), the second relates to the Insurance Mediation Directive and thirdly a new draft regulation on Packaged Retail Investment Products or PRIPs (i.e non-insurance). It is this final one that concerns us here as it introduces the requirement to publish new documentation in relation to Structured Products.

 What are KIDs?

 According to the proposal KIDs (sometimes called KIIDs) means Key (Investor) Information Documents and are:

“short, plainly-worded documents – no more than three pages long – that will provide investors with answers to the key questions they have about the features, risks, and costs of investment products.

They are designed for the retail investor rather than the professional. They will help the retail investor make a more informed decision on whether an investment is right for them.

So the investor can better compare investment products, every KID will follow the same structure. They will answer a standard set of questions, such as: What is the investment? Can I lose money? What are the costs associated with this investment? What are the risks and what might I get back?

Information that is vital for comparing different investments – on how risky the investment is, on whether it has guarantees and what these are, on the costs of the investment – will be carefully selected and presented so as to make comparisons as easy and as accurate as possible.”

Regulators

The legislative proposals are published by the European Commission, which are then adopted by the co-legistlators, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers. 

According to the European Commission, in September 2009 they brought forward proposals to replace the EU’s existing supervisory architecture with a European system of financial supervisors (ESFS), consisting of three European Supervisory Authorities:

(1) European Securities & Markets Authority (ESMA)

(2) European Banking Authority (EBA)

(3) European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA)

These authorities were established from January 2011 and have since released a discussion paper on the detailed format and content requirements of KIDs for PRIIPs. 

There are the following consultations on:

(1) discussion paper on the detailed format and content requirements of KID (Winter 2014)

(2) consultation paper on the product intervention powers under PRIIPS KID (Winter 2014)

(3) the proposed regulatory technical standards on review, revision and republication of KID (Spring 2015)

(4) the proposed regulatory technical standards on timing of delivery of the KID (Spring 2015)

(5) the proposed regulatory technical standards on content, presentation and calculation of information in the KID (Autumn 2015)

The regulatory technical standards will apply from 31st December 2016. 

According to Eversheds, there is no need for national governments to codify this EU legislation, since the legislation was framed as a regulation. It therefore has direct effect upon EU citizens and businesses from 31st December 2016.