Brussels, 30/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - Despite pressure from the insurance sector, the European Commission on Thursday 30 June announced that it had adopted, in the form of a delegated act, new rules specifying the regulatory technical standards (RTSs) on the content and methodology of the key information document (KID) which must be supplied, from next year onwards, to consumers wishing to invest in a retail financial product. The KID was brought in by the regulation on key information documents relating to 'packaged retail and insurance-based investment products' (PRIIPs), which was adopted in November 2014 (see EUROPE 11194).
The KID must lay out the objectives of the financial product, its risks, cost and yield, and so on. The Parliament and the Council now have two months to object. Ten countries, including Germany, Portugal and France, wrote to the Commission a few weeks ago to ask for extra time for these new rules, in order to give the industry longer to prepare.
The Director General of Insurance Europe, Michaela Koller, said on Thursday that it was very disappointing that the Commission had adopted these technical standards even though they contain serious design faults. Insurance Europe tried to point this out, she added (see EUROPE 11304). Koller feels that instead of helping consumers, the KID is more likely to mislead them, as it would give the impression that insurance products are more expensive and riskier than they actually are. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)