On Monday 8 April, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU will be presenting new proposed amendments on the Retail Investment Strategy to the EU’s Member State experts.
These suggestions from the Belgian authorities, a copy of which has been obtained by Agence Europe, relate to the regulation on insurance-based retail financial investment products (‘PRIIPS’).
The changes that are envisaged specifically concern: - immediate annuities without a redemption phase; - exclusion of non-equity securities issued by non-financial companies; - the expression “appropriate performance scenarios”; - pre-contractual information for investors on the total costs of a PRIIP and the role of the European financial supervisory authorities; - Key Information Documents (‘KIDs’); - application of the regulation within 24 months of its revision coming into force.
The Belgian Presidency is also expected to propose amendments on the assessment of suitability and appropriateness of financial instruments and investment services in the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD).
Finally, the European Commission’s proposal on ‘value for money’ should be back on the table for Member State experts at the EU. In the field of financial investments, ‘value for money’ implies a better correlation between costs and the performance of financial products. The Belgian Presidency has announced a presentation on Monday setting out German and Danish experience in this area.
A link to the proposals of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU can be found here: https://aeur.eu/f/blq
Belgium’s new proposals for amendments to the EU Council follow on from a previous discussion held on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 March on how to better regulate the fees received by advisers, brokers and other investment fund intermediaries in the event of the sale of a product. At the time, the Presidency proposed restricting the partial ban on retrocessions to the sale of complex financial products without advice (see EUROPE 13371/31).
On Wednesday 20 March, at the European Parliament, MEPs on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) adopted their position–not without some difficulty–on this strategy for investors that had been put forward by Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, French) (see EUROPE 13375/29).
The EPP group welcomed the “ambitious” approach based on “value for money” (see EUROPE 13375/29). However, the ECON Committee remains strongly divided, mainly over the issue of retrocessions (see EUROPE 13376/36). (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)