Recent years have seen a trend in many jurisdictions towards the adoption of short-form disclosure documents for retail financial products. This has been noted by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) in a recent consultation report on retail structured products, which stated as follows:

Regulatory tool: Consistent with their respective legal frameworks, IOSCO members could consider either allowing or requiring short-form or summary disclosure (which may or may not be standardized). This short form or summary disclosure could be provided separately or included as part of a more detailed disclosure document to be made available to investors as appropriate in offering and selling retail structured products. IOSCO members could require
these documents in addition to more lengthy disclosure documents.

Rationale and comments: Short-form or summary disclosure (whether prepared separately or as part of a more comprehensive disclosure document) can be made available to investors before investment, to support investors’ understanding of the product and informed investment decision making and their comparison of different kinds of structured products or possible investments.