The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has received a mandate from the European Commission (EC) requesting the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and ESMA – to issue recurrent reports on the cost and past performance of the main categories of retail investment, insurance and pension products.

The request supports the action, included in the EC’s Mid Term Review of the Capital Markets Union of 8 June 2017, on recurrent reporting by the ESAs of cost and performance of the main categories of retail investment, insurance and pension products.

ESMA will now embark on a large-scale study assessing the reporting of costs and past performance of retail investment products, in order to increase investors’ awareness of the net return of these products, and the impact of fees and charges. The implementation of MIFID II and PRIIPS, which will both increase the transparency on costs and charges, provide the right framework for such a study. For securities markets it will initially focus on the costs and performance of UCITS funds. In that context, it will also examine the differences between active and passive investing, and the impact on costs and charges, and long-term return.

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