KIDs for PRIIPs

The Packaged Retail & Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIP) is an EU regulation that came into effect in January 2018.

The regulation requires every products manufacturer (Nordea Bank Abp) and distributor to provide retail investors with a Key Information Document (KID) in order to strengthen investor protection and improve the investment decision and selection process.

Key Information Documents (KIDs) are documents designed to help investors to understand investment products behaviour and support comparison with other similar investment products.

About PRIIPs

The PRIIPs (Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products) Regulation aims to improve retail investor protection by:

  • Providing basic pre-contractual information called KID (Key Information Document). The KID documents will provide you with key information on the investment product you may be interested in. It is not a Marketing material. This document will help you to better understand the nature, risks, costs and potential gains and losses of your chosen investment product.
  • Improving the quality and comparability of information on the key features of investment and risk mitigating products (in particular on risk, performance and costs). The ability to better compare your selected investment products will increase your investor protection and make selections easier.
  • The regulation also requires investment products to be explained in plain language, in order to allow the investor easier comparison between products.

PRIIP Scope

The PRIIPs regulation has many similarities and overlaps with MiFID II but the big difference is that PRIIPs is specifically intended for retail investors (i.e. customers classified as non-professional customers under MiFID II). Furthermore, the regulation merely covers so called PRIIP-products.

A PRIIP is defined as an investment where the amount repayable to a retail investor is subject to fluctuations because of exposure to reference values or to the performance of one or more assets that are not directly purchased by the retail investor. Some of the following investment or risk mitigating products are included in the scope:

  • Structured products, warrants and certificates
  • Derivatives
  • UCITS funds (given a two year delay in implementation until 31 December 2019)
  • Retail Alternative Investment Funds (AIF)
  • Insurance-based investment products

Under the regulation, manufacturers/issuers are obliged to produce a Key Information Document (KID) for each product in scope. The KID is a 3-page document which must be provided in the local language of the investor and be published on the company website prior to product being offered to retail investors. Any distributor or financial intermediary, who sells or provides advice about PRIIPs to a retail investor or receives a buy order on a PRIIP from a retail investor, must provide the investor with a KID.

Example of Key Information Document (KID):

All KIDs issued are manufactured by Nordea Bank Abp.

The regulation came into effect on 1 January 2018.