The head of the Association of Investment Companies has called for an immediate delay to the introduction of the controversial Key Information Documents (KIDs), in a bid to ensure parity among all investment products.
With the European Commission indicating that it supports a delay in the implementation of Key Information Documents (KIDs) for UCITS funds for two years, the AIC has called for KIDs to be suspended for all investment products.
Ian Sayers, pictured above, chief executive of the AIC said: “The proposed delay lets the cat out of the bag. Though no doubt it will be dressed up rather differently, the real motivation for a delay is that KIDs are so toxic for retail investors that regulators fear it will damage the UCITS brand itself.
‘Misled’
“As the flagship of European funds regulation, this is understandable but where does that leave investors in other funds? They have been misled by KIDs for nearly a year now. Don’t they deserve the same protection?
Sayers argues that recent proposals for reform will not resolve these “fundamental problems” stating that investors in non-UCITS funds should not be treated as “second-class citizens”.
“The KID should be suspended for all products to allow time to fix the problems once and for all. If KIDs are not good enough for UCITS investors, then they are not good enough for purchasers of investment companies,” he added.
