Invest Europe responded to the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) consultation on a new retail disclosure framework, ‘A new product information framework for Consumer Composite Investments’, in March on behalf of the Listed Private Capital Roundtable (LPCR). Roundtable members with funds listed as investment companies on the London Stock Exchange were previously within the scope of UK packaged retail investment and insurance products (PRIIPs), although HM Treasury and the FCA recognised that the regime did not work as intended, specifically on cost disclosure, and committed last year to replacing it.
In November 2024, HM Treasury passed regulations to enable the FCA to create a Consumer Composite Investment (CCI) regime to replace PRIIPs and opened the consultation. The FCA has confirmed that closed-ended investment companies will be in scope of the new regime. The LPCR believes that excluding them from the CCI rules would be justified, but accepts that HM Treasury is unlikely to be moved from that position.
The LPCR fully supports the FCA's commitment to replacing PRIIPs with a new framework tailored to UK markets and firms that will enable LPCR members to present core product information in a more flexible and proportionate way. This will enable retail investors to understand better the products they are buying, compare options and make well-informed decisions.
Our consultation response notes that listed private equity is an important segment of the listed funds market in the UK. Listed private equity investment enables retail investors to invest in assets that might not otherwise be available to them, opens private equity to a wider range of investors by providing flexibility and liquidity and contributes to growth.
The FCA plans to issue a Policy Statement with final rules later in 2025.
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