Jacek Jastrzębski, Chair of Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF), took part in a conference: ‘Polish institutional capital in private investments: benefits’, organised by the Polish Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (PSIK). He spoke at the discussion panel: ‘Investments in private equity/venture capital/private debt: a driving force for the capital market?’.

Key points of Jacek Jastrzębski’s speech during the panel:

• Urząd Komisji Nadzoru Finansowego (UKNF), traditionally associated with the public market, is looking with curiosity at issues related to a potential engagement by institutional investors in the private market; in this respect, the UKNF participates in the current activities under the auspices of the Institute of Finance at the Ministry of Finance. In this sense, this can be regarded as a turning point, confirmed by the symbolic (first) participation of the Chair of the KNF in the conference of PSIK;
• The nature of the KNF’s work as a supervisor and regulator, considering its mandate, involves a certain degree of conservatism, and one can hardly blame the KNF for that. What also needs to be emphasised, however, is the supervisor’s mandate to promote the development of the financial market – a mandate under the Act on financial market supervision, related to the responsibility for such development. This is why the supervision authority is listening to the market carefully, is open to various proposals and initiatives and declares its will to allow flexibility in the joint efforts to overcome issues and barriers associated with the activities of institutional investors in the private market;
• This context highlights the importance of ‘the learning curve’ and the need to reflect collectively and to offer institutional investors a roadmap to investments in the private market in order to minimise the risk of learning from one’s own mistakes.