PRIIPs Legal Update: Another Day, Another Delay – Can Manufacturers breathe a small sigh of relief?
4th November 2021
In July we discussed how the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) was exercising its right to diverge from the EU when it published a consultation paper (CP 21/23) on the post-Brexit scope rules under the Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) regulation and amendments to the supplementary UK Regulatory Technical Standards (“RTS”).[See: Financial Conduct Authority Proposes Further Divergence on the UK PRIIPs Regulation].
Given that the deadline for comments on the proposals was September 30th 2021, there was an extremely tight implementation period for PRIIPs Manufacturers as the FCA planned to amend the UK PRIIPs RTS by the end of 2021 and had a very ambitious effective date of January 1st 2022.
However, on November 1st 2021, the FCA issued an updated version of their Regulatory Initiatives Grid. It appears that industry concerns have been heard (although to what degree we do not yet know) the changes are no longer expected to take effect in January 2022.
The new timeline proposed is that a Policy Statement from the FCA is expected in Q1 of 2022, or this is their aim at least. The Policy Statement will include confirmation as to when the rules will actually come into effect and will also detail any implementation period afforded.
The UK chose to diverge from the EU PRIIPs Regulation for various reasons including affording consumers better protection and with an aim to “mitigate potential harm to retail investors.” Hopefully, this additional time can go some way to help the FCA achieve this.
For additional guidance on this matter, please contact our team of legal and regulatory experts.
