Friday Marnix Arickx spoke about the challenge mutual fund companies have been facing in introducing the EU-mandated key investor information document (KIID). That is the standardised brochure that starting July 1 must be provided to each individual investor before they make an investment decision. Today Delano.lu asks Allan Pelvang, country head of Fidelity in Luxembourg, if the new rules are a good idea.

AG: Do you think the KIDD is a positive development?

AP: You can argue to have uniform customer documents across UCITS products is a good goal. You can always argue that the execution of that goal has not been as seamless as we all would have liked.

Fidelity as a group is working very hard to get the same level of transparency and consistency across financial products overall, rather than just UCITS. So it’s very much up our street, even though we have suffered like everyone else making it happen.

AG: Should the KIID rules be extended beyond funds?

AP: We would love to see similar initiatives and requirements, so that when you’re looking across the entire financial product spectrum for the retail investor, you would have a higher degree of transparency.

AG: Why is that important for consumers?

AP: [Today] it’s really difficult to compare. If you decided to make an investment, and you have to compare, ‘do I invest in a mutual fund, do I buy a life product, or do I take some fancy guaranteed product from one of the banks?’ It’s really difficult to penetrate exactly what the risk profile is and what’s the right thing for you.

Tomorrow: Kneip Communication’s Mario Mantrisi talks about why mutual fund firms are taking advantage of the KIID grace period.