L’intervento di Maurizio Primanni, CEO del Gruppo Excellence, sul numero di giugno 2024 del mensile Advisor
La gestione della governance dei prodotti finanziari e di quelli di investimento assicurativi è un nodo essenziale della consulenza finanziaria. Un argomento complesso, oggetto di notevole evoluzione in linea con la crescente complessità della gamma d’offerta. I primi requisiti di governance di prodotti finanziari furono introdotti nel 2014 con la direttiva MiFID II. Sono successivamente seguiti, nel 2016, la disciplina dei prodotti assicurativi (IDD) e gli orientamenti applicativi di ESMA, nel 2017, aggiornati nel 2023.
Come noto, la Commissione Europea nel maggio del 2023 ha pubblicato la proposta di ulteriore pacchetto normativo che va sotto il nome di Retail Investment Strategy (RIS), la quale apporta ulteriori modifiche alla product governance.
Il Principio del Value for Money
In attesa di approvazione definitiva da parte del Parlamento e del Consiglio EU, la RIS dovrebbe aumentare la protezione degli investitori al dettaglio e portare a prodotti di investimento che offrano un migliore rapporto qualità-prezzo (Value for Money), ovvero prodotti di migliore livello di servizio a prezzi più convenienti per il cliente.
Si tratta di un passaggio fondamentale. C’è, infatti, un legame diretto tra le politiche di governo dei prodotti finanziari e assicurativi e il principio del Value for Money: il processo di approvazione dei prodotti deve garantire che essi siano in linea con le esigenze, gli obiettivi e le caratteristiche della clientela di riferimento e non incidano negativamente sulla stessa.
In the context of the new RIS legislation, the Value for Money principle appears to be an appropriate counterpart to that of Best Interest. Both principles must be seen together and have the common aim of protecting the retail investor, not by requiring the manufacturer and distributor to offer only the least expensive products, but by asking them to demonstrate that, if the economically viable solution is not proposed more efficient, it is nevertheless explained in service contents adequate to ensure an appropriate Value for Money and in a consultancy proposal which is in any case aimed at pursuing the customer’s Best Interest.
The ESMA and EIOPA Benchmarks Already MiFID II and IDD had paved the way, now through the RIS the product governance processes and tools will have to be strengthened to consider further variables: those that will help to verify the relationship between quality (service content ) and cost (costs and charges) of each product.
It is primarily up to the manufacturer to evaluate whether the costs and charges included in the investment products are justified and proportionate to their service contents, subsequently it will be up to the distributor to carry out similar assessments, in order to also take into account distribution and distribution costs. others not already included in the manufacturer’s assessment, such as the costs and charges of financial consultancy, or incentives for distribution networks.
The Price Determination Requirements according to the RISAllow you to identify and quantify all the components of the costs and charges of both the manufacturer and the distributor (including those of consultancy, i.e. incentives) contained in the price of the product. Adapt to the benchmarks set by ESMA and EIOPA relating to product costs and performance.
If the costs and charges included in the products are not justified in the service contents, the Retail Investment Strategy proposal introduces the obligation not to approve products that deviate from the relevant reference parameter, or specific benchmark indicators that will have to be approved and managed by Consob for Italian products distributed only in our country and by ESMA or EIOPA for those distributed in the EU context.
In view of the wide diversity of retail investment product offerings, the development of benchmarks regarding the Value for Money of products will likely be an evolutionary process that will develop over time, starting from the most commonly purchased products to become progressively more articulated and complete as the supervisory bodies accumulate information and experience.
However, the absence of reference parameters does not exempt the manufacturer and distributor from evaluating the Value for Money of the product and from recording this information in their archives.
The Price Lever Operators in the sector (producers and distributors) will be called upon to make their pricing models for financial and insurance investment products more structured and transparent – these models will also have to be stored within a specific company database.
All this attention to the cost and price information of the products will probably lead operators to become more aware of the value of the price lever within their business model and how it can be optimized in the definition of both the standard pricing of the products and of the price actually applied to the retail investor, who is often affected by discounts and exceptions to the base price.
In addition to the inevitable realignment of standard prices with respect to market benchmarks, there could also be the opportunity to identify concrete options for realigning the actual price with respect to the service offered with reference to different homogeneous customer segments.
