On Wednesday 9 November, the European Commission is to propose a postponement, from January 2017 to January 2018, of the entry into force of the 'Priips' regulation (1286/14) on the pre-contractual information that retail investors may use to compare certain financial products, such as the UCITS investment fund or insurance products.
A grace period – which was made necessary when, in mid-September, the European Parliament rejected the proposed implementing measures of the regulation (see EUROPE 11624) – was mentioned by European Commissioner for Financial Services Valdis Dombrovskis at the meeting of the European finance ministers. Its length – one year – has been confirmed to EUROPE by several Parliament sources.
Before it presents its legislative proposal, the Commission hopes to secure assurances from the Parliament and the member states that such an undertaking will not lead to a reopening of the 'Pripps' regulation itself (see EUROPE 11657).
The Commission will also call upon the European financial supervisory authorities to submit a new opinion on the future implementing measures of the 'Priips' regulation, which should take around 6 weeks to draft. These implementing measures have been reworked on the basis of the opinion submitted by the Parliament in mid-September. "We are not starting from scratch", a parliamentary source said.
On Monday, at a meeting of the negotiators of the European Parliament, the Commission is reported to have made overtures towards the EPP Group, on the question of biometric risks, and the Greens/EFA Group, regarding the message designed to alert individuals to the fact that they are about to invest in a potentially risky financial product. The ALDE Group, on the other hand, still awaits satisfaction over the question of transaction risks, as the Liberals feel that the current methodology does not prevent an environment of negative rates in which service providers would remunerate investors. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)