The attendees addressed topics spanning from Market Development to ESG Integration
The Bank Association of Slovenia organized the regular annual conference for treasury, custody, investment banking and asset management industry. The conference was held on 11 April in City Hotel in Ljubljana.
The conference covered various topics related to financial markets, such as an overview of macroeconomic and monetary policy on the EU level, Strategy for the development of the capital market in Slovenia, ESG development and impact on financial institutions.
The event featured several key presenters who addressed the following:
• The Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia delved into the challenges associated with implementing the Strategy for the Development of the Capital Market in Slovenia for the period 2023-2030. They also discussed the Ministry's activities concerning government bonds.
• The Bank of Slovenia provided insights into the country's economic outlook, forecasting GDP growth for Slovenia in the period 2024-2026 to range between 2% and 2.5%, surpassing the projected growth for the Eurozone at 1.5%. Additionally, core inflation in Slovenia is expected to decline from 4.5% to 3% during the same period, a rate higher than the Eurozone's projected decrease from 3% to 2%. The European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to initiate interest rate cuts in the second half of 2024.
• The Securities Market Agency highlighted pending amendments to the Market in Financial Instruments Act. This includes the implementation of MiFID II amendments due to the Regulation on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLT MTF and DLT TSS), and the implementation of Directive 2004/109/ES, as amended by the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). They also discussed the CSDR Refit, which will increase cash penalties, and the EMIR Refit. Furthermore, they noted that while the US market has transitioned to a T+1 settlement cycle, European markets are expected to follow suit in the coming years.
• An ESG round table focused on the development of ESG in Slovenia, examining the current status and the integration of ESG into the operational processes of financial institutions. The round table also explored the challenges and opportunities linked with green investments.
