Dariusz Adamski, Deputy Chair of the KNF, gave a wrap-up speech at the 26th Capital Market Conference of the Chamber of Brokerage Houses held in Bukowina Tatrzańska.

Its main message was the need to build a healthy, competitive capital market based on responsibility of institutions towards clients, transparency on products offered, and cooperation among the regulator, the supervisor, and market participants. Only such conditions allow for a stable growth of the capital sector and for an increase in investors’ confidence.

Dariusz Adamski has emphasised that competitiveness increases the effectiveness of financial institutions’ functioning, improves the resilience of the whole system and promotes its long-term development. It is the role of the KNF to support the development of the market, but competitive stimuli need to come from businesses. To this end, it is necessary to launch new products and processes. The supervisory authority will be supporting this process also through its openness to consultations concerning planned new solutions in order to minimise related legal and supervisory risks. 

One of important points of the wrap-up speech delivered by Dariusz Adamski was the need to build a permanent confidence in the financial market among investors. He emphasised that the stable development of the capital market requires long-term thinking, also by financial institutions. Decisions made exclusively with long-term advantages in mind may lead to loss of reliability and to undermining the entire market ‘ecosystem’. An important element of that process is the blocking of offers of complex financial instruments which are incomprehensible for clients. Such practices can give financial institutions long-term profits but, every time, they also force the supervisory authority to react decisively to restore balance as they are harmful to the entire market.

In his speech, Dariusz Adamski also touched on a topic of financial service costs and their effect on clients’ interest in investing. He referred to a positive example of competition in the area of pension products such as IKE and IKZE, where competitive pressure forced lower fees. This shows that Polish clients are, by nature, rather unwilling to take risk or make investments, but they look very closely at the cost of financial services. Clients expect offers that are attractive in terms of price.

The Deputy Chair of the KNF also raised the matter of financial market deregulation. He pointed out that deregulation is often treated as a cure-all for markets’ issues, but in reality the most important value of deregulatory initiatives lies in the strengthening of dialogue between market participants and public institutions.

In his speech, Dariusz Adamski also outlined the broader economic context. A strong capital market is a significant tool for supporting the development of businesses, financing innovation and enhancing the competitiveness of economy. For this reason, capital market development should be treated as a common goal for regulators, financial institutions and market participants, and its achievement requires cooperation, appropriate regulations and efforts to build an investment culture. Equally important is the role of market infrastructure, such as stock exchange or clearing institutions, which should adapt their operating models to the changing environment, including the growing importance of non-public capital and new forms of capital raising.