[author: Abdul Khan]

On March 8, the Joint Committee of the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) published a letter that had been sent to the European Commission proposing draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) amending Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 to clarify the application of the key information document (KID) to multi-option products (MOPs).

MOPs are Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and certain non-UCITS funds offered as underlying investment options to a packaged retail and insurance-based investment product (PRIIP). In February 2019, the ESAs identified the draft RTS are required following a decision during the trialogue on the cross-border distribution of investment funds that will extend the time period for which MOPs are excused from preparing a PRIIPs KID from December 31, 2019 until December 31, 2021.

The draft RTS seek to align the date of the exemption in Article 18 of the PRIIPS Delegated Regulation with the revised date in the PRIIPS Regulation ((EU) 1286/2014). The objective is to provide legal certainty to market partakers before the expiry of the current provision in the PRIIPs Delegated Regulation at the end of 2019.

The letter from the Joint Committee of the ESAs to the European Commission can be found here.