News

Due to changes brought about by MiFID II, the FCA is retiring FG12/15 on independent and restricted advice and FG14/1 on inducements and conflicts of interest.

ESMA has announced a ban on the provision of binary options to retail investors in the EU and placed restrictions on the provision of contracts for differences, including rolling spot forex and financial spread bets, to retail investors in the EU. The FCA supports ESMA’s application of EU-wide temporary product intervention measures and expects to consult on whether to apply these measures on a permanent basis.

The PRIIPs Regulation requires those manufacturing a packaged retail and insurance-based investment product (“PRIIP”) to draw up a key information document ("KID") containing standard information, and requires persons advising on or selling PRIIPs to provide the KID to retail investors, with effect from 1 January 2018.

Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFMs) and MiFID firms need to consider the impact that Brexit will have on their business in the light of recent opinion issued by ESMA to relevant EU national regulators.