This month the Belzuz Abogados S.L.P.- Sucursal em Portugal alerts for the date of entry into force of the new rules pertaining PRIIPs distribution and for the fact that the internal implementation legislation as not yet been published.
The Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 (PRIIPs Regulation) as set forth uniform Community rules on the drafting and provision to retail investors of information documents pertaining packaged
retail and insurance-based investment products.
The Regulation has also been supplemented by the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1904 of 14 July 2016, specifying supervisory rules, and by the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 of 8 March 2017 (Delegated Regulation), that has laid
down regulatory technical standards with regard to the presentation, content, review and revision of key information documents and the conditions for fulfilling the requirement to provide such documents.
The PRIIPs Regulation applies to manufacturers, persons advising on or selling packaged retail and insurance-based investment products, as defined in the Regulation, although some products are excluded from application, such as life insurance contracts
where the benefits under the contract are payable only on death or in respect of incapacity due to injury, sickness or infirmity or some pension plans.
As provided by the legal framework the PRIIPs manufacturer must prepare a Key Information Document, containing the information specified in the articles 6.º to 14.º of the Regulation and in the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 of
8 March 2017, that must be published in the manufacturers website and be provided to the retail investor in good time before those retail investors are bound by any PRIIPs pertaining contract, with the exception of the situations determined in the Regulation
on which the document can be provided after the conclusion of the transaction, although without undue delay.
Finally, the PRIIPs Regulation, supplemented by the Delegated Regulation, guarantees the effectiveness of the information provision by the Key Information Document by setting rules, namely, on the document format, redaction, and distinctiveness from other
documentation, such as advertising messages, and by establishing a continued review and revising obligation to be met by the PRIIP manufacturer.
In the original wording the Regulation should has entered into force in the past 31st of December, 2016. However, the Regulation (EU) 2016/2340 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2016 has altered the enter into force date to
the 1st of January, 2018 (exception made to the entities listed in the article 32 of the Regulation, to whom the rules shall only apply from the as of January, 2020).
The Portuguese Financial Supervision National Council had already prepared an internal implementation preliminary rule in March 2017. Nevertheless, the document has not been approved and published as of this date, existing no certainties on the future
rule impact on the legal framework, namely on what regards the hypothetical ex ante notification of the key information document to the Portuguese competent authority.
The Belzuz Abogados S.L.P. remains available
to support the entities covered by the PRIIPs Regulation on the compliance of the new rules on information documents pertaining PRIIPs drafting and provision, that shall enter into force at the 1st of January 2018.