Last Friday in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, saw the end of the three-day Financial Forum of one of the most important European think tanks - EUROFI - which is focused on financial services and primarily strives to strengthen and integrate European financial markets and their related policies. At the invitation of the organizers, the event was traditionally attended by the VZMD President Mr. Kristjan Verbič, who in addition to the lively forum also attended numerous accompanying events, such as gala banquet, where the guests were addressed by Pablo Hernandez de Cos, the Governor of the Bank of Spain and Chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. In parallel with the events, Mr. Verbič participated in many bilateral meetings, among others with Guillaume Prache, the Chairman of the FAIDER, the French federation of investor and life insurance policyholder associations, and Senior Advisor of BETTER FINANCE, the European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users. On Wednesday, the latter held one of the most resounding keynote speeches - not only about the EU strategy for individual investors, but also about the actual establishment of the capital markets union. A recording of the entire speech: https://youtu.be/NtNa3B9AFEg.

 During the three-day event, more than 900 invited participants exchanged views on fighting inflation, the issues of low economic growth in the EU, financial stability, the impacts of climate change on banking and insurance sector, the challenges of technological and digital transformation and other topics. More than 240 prominent speakers participated, including Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission Executive Vice-President, numerous ministers for finance, members of the European Parliament, Jaime Lizarraga, the Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Andrew Griffith, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Jose Manuel Campa, the Chairperson of the European Banking Authority (EBA), Petra Hielkema, the Chairperson of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), and many others.

The VZMD President, also as a member of the Executive Board of BETTER FINANCE, has attended the mentioned forums since 2018 in Sofia, in 2019 in Bucharest (VIDEO:https://youtu.be/d0ABNd1I9gs), in 2021 in Ljubljana - immediately before the international VZMD investor conference in Bled (VIDEO: https://youtu.be/JoaQyqZlVwg) - and in 2022 in Prague. EUROFI is namely one of the most important events in the field of finance and economy as it always takes place in the country holding the Presidency of the EU Council, i.e. alongside the meeting of the European ministers of economy and finance ECOFIN. All European countries are represented, as well as numerous G20 countries (USA, Japan, China…). More than 80 most renowned European and international companies in the financial sector, covering all the financial services areas, are partnering with EUROFI. The partners include Allianz, Bank of America, Bank of China, Barclays, Black Rock, Bloomberg, BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Borse Group, Euroclear, Euronext, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Goldman Sachs, HSBC, ING, J.P. Morgan, London Stock Exchange Group, Moody's, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, Santander, Société Générale, USB, Unicredit, Visa, and others.

VIR: VZMD