PRIPs (packaged retail investment products) is an EU term as opposed to RIPs (retail investment products) which is an FSA term and will come into being in the forthcoming RDR era.
The European Commission is proposing legislation to improve protection for retail investors in PRIPs by way of the harmonisation of information that is provided to such investors through the medium of a Key Information Document (KID). Unlike RIPs, there is no rigid definition of PRIPs – although there is a loose definition in Article 4 of the proposal document (strictly speaking it refers to ‘investment product’).
This is a Regulation rather than a Directive and the proposals will go to the European Parliament and the Council to agree. Once agreement is reached the Commission will basically add the finishing touches with the full proposal expected to be in place by the end of 2014.
