Since the Commission requested CESR’s assistance on developing KII disclosures in April 2007, CESR has been working intensively to prepare its response, in parallel with the finalisation of the revised UCITS Directive at Level 1.
6. The first output of CESR’s work was a set of advice that was submitted to the Commission in February 2008 (Ref. CESR/08-087). This followed a two-month public consultation held in late 2007, which included the organisation of an open hearing at CESR’s premises in Paris. CESR received a significant amount of feedback to the consultation from external stakeholders, including retail investors’ representatives. The Commission used CESR’s advice as the basis for the investor testing exercise it has been carrying out since March 2008, the second (and final) phase of which is due for completion by end-May 2009. CESR has also been closely involved in both the design and roll-out of the testing process.
In the February 2008 advice, CESR identified a number of technical issues arising from its work that merited further consideration. This consultation paper sets out CESR’s proposed approach on the technical issues. Early results from the Commission’s testing have informed CESR’s views on some aspects; where this is the case, this is explained in the relevant section of the paper.
CESR welcomes comments to the consultation paper published today by 15 May 2009.