ESMA Consults On Revised MiFID Suitability Guidelines

On 27 January 2022, ESMA published for consultation a revised set of guidelines for the MiFID suitability rules (the Guidelines) which rules require investment firms providing investment advice and portfolio management (including UCITS managers and AIFMs with MiFID top-up licences) to assess the suitability of a given investment or service before recommending it to clients. In addition to reflecting the sustainability preference rules, the revised Guidelines also include a new annex setting out good and bad practices identified during the ESMA 2020 common supervisory action.

The consultation on the revised Guidelines is open until 27 April 2022. ESMA expects to collate feedback from the consultation and issue final revised Guidelines in Q3 2022, for application two months after the publication of the translated versions on ESMA's website. The revised Guidelines, once applicable, will replace the existing 2018 Guidelines.