Andreas Stepnitzka, EFAMA Deputy Director, Regulatory Policy, comments:
EFAMA monitors issues surrounding fund distribution and disclosures to investors. These include investor protection and disclosure issues arising from the evolving PRIIPs and MiFID frameworks, the shift towards digital distribution tools, and the continued integration of ESG considerations into fund products.
Andreas Stepnitzka, EFAMA Deputy Director, Regulatory Policy, comments:
EFAMA provided high-level comments to the Commission’s consultation on the potential review of the Directive on Distance Marketing of Consumer Financial Services.
We agree with the Commission’s interpretation that the Directive is seen as a “safety net” for financial services not already subject to product-specific legislation. Fund and asset managers are already subject to various, more stringent and detailed sectoral legislations, such as (but not limited to) UCITS, AIFMD and MiFID as well as the (more recent) Cross-Border Fund Distribution Directives.
The European Commission recently adopted amendments to the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) Regulation and the Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) Directive. However, in contrast to earlier plans, the adoption of the revised Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) amending Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 has been postponed.
EFAMA places huge importance on this revision of ESMA’s suitability guidelines, as they spell out in detail how investors can invest in sustainable investment products. If they are well designed, the guidelines have the potential to significantly boost capital flows towards sustainable investments; a goal that the European fund industry strongly supports.
EFAMA appreciates the opportunity to share our views on the European Commission’s consultation on enhancements to the suitability and appropriateness assessments forming part of the wider, upcoming Retail Investment Strategy.
The European ESG Template (EET) is meant to facilitate the necessary exchange of data between product manufacturer and distributor for the purpose of fulfilling ESG-related regulatory requirements contained in the SFDR, relevant provisions of the Taxonomy Regulation, and the relevant delegated acts complementing MiFID II and IDD. The EET V1 is based on the regulatory situation on the day of publication and will be reviewed regularly depending on the evolving regulation, and at least confirmed annually. With regard to the MiFID target market, the EET interacts with the EMT V4.