Can shares in non-UCITS collective investment undertakings explicitly excluded under point (i) of Article 25(4)(a) of MiFID II be nevertheless assessed against the criteria set out in Article 57 of the MiFID II Delegated Regulation and as a consequence potentially be deemed non- complex financial instruments for the purposes of the appropriateness test?

Answer 1

No. Article 25(4) of MiFID II allows, subject to certain conditions, MiFID firms to provide execution and/or reception and transmission of orders services without having to assess the appropriateness of the product for the client. One condition is that the service to be provided does not relate to a complex product. MiFID II has further clarified which instruments should be deemed complex per se.