Global Corporate Governance Forum

The Toronto Centre, the IFC’s Global Corporate Governance Forum, PEPSE and the Sofia World Bank office jointly organized the first Regional Workshop for strengthening the capacity of supervisory authorities in Southeastern Europe on enforcement and fraud prevention. The workshop was hosted by the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission and co-sponsered by ATTF and IOSCO. The Regional Securities Seminar took place in Sofia, Bulgaria on June 23-27, 2008 and trained 32 experts from 8 countries in the region.

Ensuring that capital markets are well governed is important part of sustainable private sector development. Cnsidering the rapid growth of the capital markets in the Southeast Europe region, it is essential for supervisory authorities to appropriately identify and tackle the challenges in financial supervision.

”The Regional Workshop has gathered 32 experts from supervisory and stock exchange authorities from Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, Republika Srpska, Poland and Bulgaria. This diversity of countries will be very beneficial in identifying common regional problems and issues, developing solutions and sharing good practices.”, the IFC SEE Corporate Governance Program Regional Manager Juan Carlos Fernandez said in his welcoming remarks to the participants.


The Regional Securities Seminar covered three important topics for the securities regulators in the SEE region: a) preventing market manipulation and abuse, combating with fraud and insider trading; b) improving effective surveillance and enforcement; and c) action planning. This practical and highly interactive workshop provided framework for tackling challenges faced by securities regulators in the SEE region. The highlight of the program was that all participants had to identify, prior to the start of the workshop, enforcement challenge from their work and during the workshop analyze the situation and develop a solution. Each participant, with the help of the program leaders, developed and presented an individual action plan on how best to deal with the problems once back at work.



Leading international corporate governance and capital market experts presented best practices and case studies, and provided substantive advice on the financial supervision during the Seminar. Eddy Wymeersch, Chairman of European Regional Committee IOSCO, Alan Cameron, Former CEO of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Carlo Biancheri, Former Director of International Relations of the Italian Securities Regulator CONSOB, Ilona Pieczynska-Czerny, Director of Enforcement of Polish Financial Supervision Authority, and Stefan Pankoke, Senior Advisor at the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority shared their expertise in financial supervision. Participants evaluated the interaction with the program leaders, during the case study activities and role plays, as extremely valuable.


Materials:

Regional Securities Seminar, Sofia, June 23-27, 2008 – Agenda

Program Leaders’ Biographies

Presentations

Day One (June 23, 2008)

The Context for Change: The Changing Financial Landscape and the regulatory response
Eddy Wymeersch, Chairman of European Regional Committee, IOSCO

Action Planning Methodology - outline
Alan Cameron, Former CEO of the Australian Securities and Investment Commission

Action Planning Methodology - Guide for Participants Attending Toronto Centre Leadership Programs

Effective Communication and Stakeholder Management
Gerry Lewis, Consultant

Day Two (June 24, 2008)

Case Study on International Fraud and Related Responses
Carlo Biancheri, Former Director of International Relations of CONSOB (Italian securities regulator)

Day Three (June 25, 2008)

Case Study on Nomura International PLC Australia
Alan Cameron, Former CEO of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)

Epilogue Nomura International PLC Australia
Alan Cameron, Former CEO of ASIC

Day Four (June 26, 2008)

Technical Workshop on Market Abuse, Fraud and Insider Trading

Market Manipulation and Abuse
Ilona Pieczynska-Czerny, Director of Enforcement, Polish Financial Supervision Authority

How to combat Fraud and Insider Trading
Marcin Pachucki, Deputy Director of Enforcement, Polish Financial Supervision Authority

Day Five (June 27, 2008)

Effective Surveillance and Enforcement Techniques
Stefan Pankoke, Senior Advisor, Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)

Media coverage:

Media: Pari Business Daily - 30 June 2008 (Interview with Eddy Wymeersch, Chairman of European Regional Committee, IOSCO)
Title: The Crash of the Stock Exchanges could weaken the Bank Finance (in Bulgarian)
Link: http://www.pari.bg/article.aspx?article_id=356048

Media: Darik Radio – Finance News - 24 June 2008 (Interview with Eddy Wymeersch, Chairman of European Regional Committee, IOSCO)
Title: Sanctions and supervision fighting market manipulation (in Bulgarian)
Link: http://www.darikfinance.bg/view_article.php?article_id=8300

Media: Dnevnik Daily – 25 June 2008
Title: The Committee of European Securities Supervisors trains Bulgarian experts how to detect fraud and market manipulations
Link: http://www.dnevnik.bg/show/?storyid=518685