At 9:00 AM today, at the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia the 34th regular meeting of the Finance and Monetary Policy Council of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia began, where the members discussed the Bill on amending Financial Instruments Market Act (ZTFI-G) as well as amendments to the Bill - which were adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia on 5 January 2017 and sent for adoption by way of summary procedure - were brought forward by deputy groups. Apart from the Council members, representatives from PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD), Securities Market Agency (ATVP) and Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Slovenia were invited to the meeting."The Government wants to prevent VZMD from collecting shares under the "Share SUPPORT" - allow or forbid the "Share SUPPORT" of VZMD managed by Mr. Kristjan Verbič - this will be, as it seems, one of the focal points of tomorrow's discussion on the amendment to Financial Instruments Market Act. The Government and ATVP want to step on toes of the "Share SUPPORT", whereas members of the National Council, Sinteza association and NSi party stood up for it," was mentioned in the newspaper DELO.
Please be reminded that the Government of the Republic of Slovenia followed the initiative by ATVP and proposal by the Ministry of Finance in the proposal of ZTFI-G, who want, through legal intervention in Article 255 of ZTFI, to block the program “Share SUPPORT”, with which VZMD has helped hundreds of minority shareholders to keep the ownership of their own shares, despite adverse effects of the process of eliminating over 250,000 registry accounts at the Central Securities Clearing Corporation (KDD), who has primarily pursued the interests of the financial industry and large players on the capital market, which at the same time leads to another expropriation of over 100,000 minority shareholders.
It follows from the proposal by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia that activities of those who work publicly and transparently should be forbidden, and the actions of those who work in closed groups and far from the public eye should be supported nevertheless! Obviously ATVP and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia - without identifying any problems or malpractice regarding management of ownership on a trust account of a lawyer (as provided by VZMD) in the previous decade - consider troublesome those who publicly call for and offer specific solutions to keep the ownership of ordinary citizens and minority shareholders. “Therefore it is necessary to make every effort to block VZMD who took a constructive approach in solving problems, lucidly and before the eyes of the critical public, and not those of large “players” or foreign intermediaries, although they use equal legal options, but they only do not notify ATVP thereof and are not obliged to make them available. It is important to emphasize that the trust account of a lawyer or a public notary ensures a high level of legal and normal security for minority shareholders, as neither a lawyer nor a public notary may not have them at their disposal as well as no creditors of a lawyer, public notary or their other related persons are allowed to reach for the ownership on a trust account such as VZMD” is how the actions and recent moves by ATVP and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia - “under obvious pressures stemming from narrow interests of the financial industry - were commented on by the VZMD President, Mr. Kristjan Verbič.
Therefore, VZMD welcomes the decision of the deputy group from the Nova Slovenija party – Christian Democrats (NSi), who on 25 January 2017 tabled an amendment to the disputable amending act with which the intended supplement of Article 255 of ZTFI would be eliminated. That proposal was, in its opinion supported also by the Committee of the National Council for the economy, craft industry, tourism and finance in its meeting on 25 January 2017, and also by the civil society associations (such as Sinteza) and European Federation of Investors and Financial Services Users (Better Finance), who already in the open letter to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Miro Cerar and all members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia stated that the proposed amendment was in explicit opposition with the Regulation (EU) No. 909/2014, which prohibits new restrictions of the omnibus (trust) client accounts in the national laws of Member States. The proposed paragraph 10 of Article 255 of ZTFI provides for exactly such restrictions which is not allowed in regard to the EU Regulation.
The amendment which was tabled in regard to proposed supplements by the deputy group of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) and which excludes the restriction proposed by ATVP and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in case of lawyers and public notaries who may obtain ATVP’s permission to perform investment services and transactions is believed by the VZMD expert associates to be fallacious and offers no solution as neither a lawyer nor a public attorney may peform investment services or transactions under the Attorneys Act or Public Notary Act respectively.
The new amendment to Article 32 of ZTFI was also tabled by the coalition parties with which they obviously want to prevent others from performing ancillary investment services with the exception of banks and brokerage companies. Ever since the establishment of “Share SUPPORT”, VZMD has been clarifying that they perform no investment services or transaction or ancillary investment services or transactions whatsoever as they do not facilitate any transactions with securities. Investment or ancillary investment services and transactions at the “Share SUPPORT” are provided by a selected bank or a brokerage company at which a lawyer has a securities account as it is only the bank or the brokerage company eligible to manage securities account- over which ATVP has identical control as in other cases!
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT - VZMD also lodged a proposal for the temporary decree for PROHIBITING THE SALE OF Nova KBM bank - to prevent direct damage to the Republic of Slovenia and its citizens
STRESS TESTS – new and obvious proof of the extremely unequal adjudication of Slovenian banks – are they guilty in Brussels or Ljubljana, and what are their motives? The PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association (VZMD) has called on the Bank of Slovenia (BA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) to explain, why only in Slovenia are we left to use »static« and extremely pessimistic assumptions, while in other countries and banks of the EU fresh data and »dynamic« valuations are used and even allow for