Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) and the key information documents (KIDs) that relate to them are subject to new regulations that take effect on 1 January 2018. So what?
If you’re in the financial services business and you do business with Europe all this legislation and the documents that support it must be provided in the language of the consumer.
Starting with the KID – which is usually a three-page information document explaining the detail of the PRIIP that the client is considering. This isn’t optional, the KID is mandatory for all PRIIPs. Moreover, it needs to be in layman’s language so that a non-financial client can easily understand the key features of the product:
- What investments are involved
- Potential gains
- Risk analysis
- Initial and ongoing costs
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
There are Regulatory Technical Standards on the content of KIDs as well as when they must be delivered.
Does this affect you?
If you have any clients who are non-English speakers and/or are resident in a country where the mother-tongue is not English, then absolutely you must take notice.
It’s not up to your client to get these documents translated – that is your responsibility (or your company’s).
So there are three issues to tackle:
- Creating a KID that ticks all the regulatory boxes
- Ensuring that the content of the KID is easily understood by lay-people
- Translating it into the language of the client to whom the PRIIP is being presented.
‘Translating’ legislation into user-friendly English is the first hurdle – but translating the document into another language where English phraseology may not directly translate, is an even bigger one.
While it may be tempting to make the document look more user-friendly with corporate branding and graphic illustrations, these cannot be used as the regulations state that there must be no colour, branding or graphics to distract the reader, so the entire KID depends on the words alone.
Key issues
Realistically the three issues should not be tackled in isolation, but a collaborative approach where the technical information is translated into a KID in conversational English AND into any language that is likely to be required will work best.
Ideally, a project manager will oversee all stages of this process to ensure that the final outcome is a KID that works for all parties – the client, the financial services provider and meets the required legislation.
With this legislation imminent – don’t wait until you need these documents to get them converted to another language. A little forward planning pays dividends!
If you need advice or help with this please give us a call on +44 (0)1245 216930 or email info@ttcwetranslate.com
