In the summer of 2015, the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markt, the AFM) launched a consultation on proposed amendments to the Further Regulation on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings (Nadere regeling gedragstoezicht financiële ondernemingen Wft, the Further Regulation). These amendments comprised:
- technical improvements, such as updating references to other legislation and processing technical amendments to the service provision document (dienstverleningsdocument);
- updates of the models used for certain financial information leaflets (financiële bijsluiters);
- an adjustment to the method used to calculate the pessimistic yield scenario for wealth products based on savings (vermogensopbouw producten op basis van sparen).
On 25 February 2016, the AFM announced that the proposed amendments to the Further Regulation will enter into force on 1 April 2016. In addition to some minor changes to the proposed amendments, the consultation has made it clear that the models used for financial information leaflets require additional amendments before they can be published and they need to be programmed in the AFM’s financial information leaflet generator. The AFM expects that these new models will not be available for use before 1 July 2016.
The EU regulation on key information documents for packaged retail and insurance-based investment products (PRIIPs Regulation) will enter into force on 31 December 2016. The PRIIPs Regulation will introduce the ‘Key Information Document’, which will replace the financial information leaflet for a significant number of financial products. In view of this and the fact that the updated models for the financial information leaflets will not be available before July 2016, the AFM decided that for the time-being it will not publish new models for financial information leaflets.
View the AFM’s news item on the outcome of the consultation (Dutch Only), 25 February 2016.