PRIIPs replacement regime on the way - FCA chair
FCA chairman Ashley Alder has confirmed that the FCA is working intensively on a new post-Brexit PRIIPs regime to improve retail asset management regulation.
In a speech in the City this week he said new rules were on the way.
The packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) regime was an EU directive adopted by the FCA as part of a swathe of retail investment regulation.
It has, however, been criticised for using generic illustration figures and for lacking clarity.
Post Brexit, the FCA has said it wanted to introduce a new regime for packaged products.
In a speech to the Bloomberg Buy-side Forum this week, Mr Alder said the PRIPPs changes coming down the line were part of an “ambitious agenda” for UK asset management.
He said the new regime would give investors “sufficient and meaningful information” on their investments before they buy and any changes would be in tandem with the work on the advice-guidance boundary to “re-set” how consumers engage with financial products.
He said: “We certainly welcome a revocation of the PRIIPs regulation, which has resulted in some instances of cost disclosure not reflecting the true costs of an investment. We want to ensure that any replacement regime gives investors sufficient and meaningful information to inform their decision making.
“We look forward to consulting on a new regime that is proportionate and tailored to the market and products here in the UK, and which allows firms to design a more engaging consumer journey. Together with our work on the advice-guidance boundary, we think that this has the potential to fundamentally re-set how consumers engage with financial products.”
Mr Alder said updating and replacing EU regulation would take time as the FCA sorted through an “alphabet soup” of UCITS, AIFMD and some parts of MIFID.
The aim ultimately, he said, was a “smarter regulatory framework.”
On the capital markets side the FCA is “pursuing a set of landmark proposals to enhance UK capital markets.”