Liz Field (pictured), the CEO of the UK’s largest personal investment management and financial advice association, has joined forces with the Investment Association to call for an urgent review of the European Union's Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products regulation.

Before the PRIIPs regime came into effect on New Year's Day, the financial sector expressed concern that flaws in the design of Key Information Documents (KIDs) could result in investors receiving misleading information ahead of transactions. PIMFA believes that its fears have now been realised.

Over recent weeks, product manufacturers, wealth managers, financial advisors and industry commentators have drawn attention to instances where the calculation methods dictated by the regulation result in product risk and performance data that does not do the job - information that is anything but "clear, fair and not misleading" and that does nothing to help investors compare different products with each other or to make properly informed decisions about investments.

PIMFA is also asking the Financial Conduct Authority to clarify its recent suggestion that firms that sell or give advice about PRIIPs ought to deal with potentially misleading information in KIDs "by providing additional explanation as part of their communications with clients."

PIMFA's CEO is concerned that the fundamental purpose of the PRIIPs regime is undermined if KIDs fail to provide accurate, timely and clear information to investors. She has argued: "In instances where KIDs provide misleading information - regardless of product providers' compliance with detailed KID content requirements - advisers and distributors should not be expected to "paper over the cracks" by providing "additional explanation" to investors. The ad hoc correction of documents that are a matter of regulatory requirement should not be undertaken lightly - as well as creating further inconsistencies in the way individual products are presented to investors, such an approach may result in wholly unreasonable liabilities for advisors and distributors."