Packaged retail investment and insurance products (PRIIPs) are at the core of the retail investment market. They are investment products that banks typically offer to consumers, for example, when they want to save for a specific objective such as a house purchase or for a child’s education. PRIIPs cover a range of investment products which, taken together, make up a market in Europe worth up to €10 trillion.
Despite their potential benefits for retail investors, PRIIPs are often complicated and lacking in transparency. The information which institutions make available to investors when selling these products can be overly complex. They often contain too much jargon and can be difficult to use for comparisons between different investment products. Since institutions selling these products often also play a role in advising investors, conflicts of interest may arise producing advice which may not be in the investor's best interests.
In order to tackle these shortcomings, the EU has adopted a regulation on PRIIPs, which obliges those who produce or sell investment products to provide investors with key information documents (KIDs).
Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 November 2014 on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs)
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/653 of 8 March 2017 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1286/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs) by laying 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