From 3 January 2018, financial institutions located anywhere in the world selling retail investment products to investors domiciled in the European Union must comply with multiple investor protection regulations, including PRIIPs, MiFID II and UCITS. Firms will have a new duty to exchange data and information about the content and sales of retail investment products, as well as create and issue regulatory documents such as PRIIPs-KIDs.

The new platform underpins SIX’s existing MiFID II data offering and PRIIP document generation and distribution services, making them easier to consume. Relationship managers will, for example, benefit by being able to use the interface to interact with the product issuers whose products they sell and make sure they offer products that match their client’s profile and then report back on who they sold to. This platform makes it easier for banks to automate their internal processes, enables two-way connections and feedback loops between the buy-side and sell-side and helps ensure that retail investors enjoy access to a diverse global investment portfolio and transparent costs.

Since the same data points are often required in different levels of granularity for different regulations, the platform also acts as a central source for investor protection data. Product data, information and documents can be structured and exchanged in real-time in a standardised way, and in the right format for each regulation. The platform also allows information and documents to be requested on-demand at the point of sale, rather than potentially multiple times each day for thousands of products, reducing costly unnecessary processes.

Phillip Lynch, Head of Markets, Products & Strategy SIX Financial Information commented: “With 87 years of experience in financial information services, we specialise in helping firms understand and manage data for regulations. We have taken that experience and collaborated with the industry to develop this mutualised response to the huge challenge that firms will face in managing and exchanging regulatory data and documentation.

“This platform, with its ‘ready-to-consume’ data, will help banks automate and scale their operations, reducing costs and increasing the speed of compliance,” Lynch continued. “Instead of focusing on each regulation individually, clients can depend on SIX to support regulatory compliance for current and future regulations in tandem. Retail investors will benefit from a robust industry platform that helps make the investment market more secure and efficient, and allows access a diverse global investment portfolio with maximum transparency.”