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How Bulgaria and Other Countries in the Region Work for Better Financial Consumer Protection
How Bulgaria and Other Countries in the Region Work for Better Financial Consumer Protection
June 10-11, 2014Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan, Sofia, Bulgaria
A few years ago, Bulgaria set an ambitious goal to increase financial consumer protection and financial literacy. What progress has been achieved and what has been done by other countries like the Netherlands, Portugal or Poland? The Financial Supervision Commission of Bulgaria, together with the World Bank, have organized a regional conference in Sofia to seek answers to these questions, bringing together high level officials and experts from regulatory institutions from the Netherlands, FYR Macedonia, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Armenia.


June 10th

 

09.00 - 09.30

Registration

 

09.30 - 10.20

Welcoming Remarks

Mr. Plamen Oresharski, Prime Minister of Bulgaria

Mr. Neven Mimica, EU Commissioner for Consumer Policy, TBC

Mrs. Daniela Bobeva, Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development of Bulgaria

Mr. Samuel Munzele Maimbo, Lead Financial Sector Specialist,

World Bank

Mr. Stoyan Mavrodiev, Chairman, Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission (FSC)

Mr. Laurent Degabriel, Head of the Investment & Reporting Division, ESMA

 

10.20 - 11.00

Session 1: Compliance and Supervision: An Uphill Task for Regulators

Speakers: Mr. Theodor Kockelkoren, Netherlands Authority for Finacial Markets, Mr. Michał Kruszka, Deputy Director of Analyses and International Cooperation Department, Polish Financial Supervision Authority

 

11.00  - 11.15

Q & A

 

11.15 - 11.30

Coffee break

 

11.30 – 12.30

Session 2: Responsible Lending and Debt Counseling: A European Perspective

Speakers: Mr. Levon Hampartzoumian, Chairman of the Association of Bulgarian Banks, Ms. Maria Lucia Leitão, Central Bank of Portugal, Head of Banking Conduct Supervision Department, Mr. Bernard Sheridan, Central Bank of Ireland

 

12.30 - 12.45

Q&A

 

12.45 - 14.00

Lunch

 

14.00 - 14.40

 

 

 

 

 

 

14.40-15.00

 

15.00-16.00

Session 3: Financial Innovation and Technology and their Impact on Consumer Protection: Finding a balance between Regulation and Innovation

Speakers: Ms. Ralitsa Agayn-Guri – Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian FSC; Mr. Robin Simpson, Consumers International, Mr. Riccardo Basso, Bank of Italy

 

Q & A

 

Session 4: Approaches to Alternative Dispute Resolution in Developed and Developing EU Economies

Speakers: Mr. David Thomas, World Bank, Mr. Dimitar Koichev, Director “International cooperation”, Bulgarian FSC, Ms. Hranush Aghayan, Financial System Mediator, Armenia

 

16.00 - 16.20

Q&A

 

16.20 - 16.30

Closing remarks

 

* Lead moderator for the day: Mr. Evgeni Evgeniev, Private Sector Development Specialist, World Bank

 

 

June 11th

 

09.00-9.30

 

09.30 - 10.10

Registration

 

Session 1: Deposit Insurance and its Implications on Financial Consumer Protection

Speakers: Mr. Jerzy Pruski, IADI President and Chair of Executive Council, President of the Management Board of the Bank Guarantee Fund, Poland, Mr. Rossen Nikolov, Chairman of the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund

 

10.10 - 10.30

Q&A

 

10.30 - 10.45

Coffee break

 

10.40 - 11.40

 

Session 2: Strengthening the Population's Financial Capability

 

Speakers: Mr. Vladimir Savov, Member of the Board, Bulgarian FSC,            Ms. Milena Stoicheva, Executive Director, Junior Achievement, Bulgaria, Mr. Shaun Mundy, World Bank

 

11.40 – 12.00

Q&A

 

12.00 – 12.20

Conference closing remarks by DPM Daniela Bobeva, Mr. Vladimir Savov, Bulgarian FSC, and Mr. Samuel Munzele Maimbo, Lead Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank

 

12.20 – 14.00

Lunch

 

* Lead moderator for the day: Mr. Vladimir Savov,

Member of the Board, Bulgarian FSC

  • Mr. Plamen Oresharski

    Prime Minister of Bulgaria

  • Mr. Neven Mimica

    EU Commissioner for Consumer Policy

  • Ms. Daniela Bobeva

    Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development

  • Mr. Samuel Munzele Maimbo

    Lead Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank

  • Mr. Stoyan Mavrodiev

    Chairman, FSC

  • Mr. Laurent Degabriel

    Head of the Investment & Reporting Division, ESMA

  • Mr. Theodor Kockelkoren

    Netherlands Authority for Finacial Markets
    Theodor Kockelkoren has been in the employ of the AFM since April 2002. He became a member of the AFM Executive Board in February 2008. His portfolio includes supervision of the financial service provision to consumers. This includes offering, mediating in and providing advice about saving, borrowing, insuring and investing. Kockelkoren is chairman of the OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection. Kockelkoren was, in his previous position of director, responsible for part of the supervision of financial enterprises and for shaping the AFM's new duties. He was also responsible for strategy, market-wide investigations and risk analyses. Theme reports, such as those regarding the intransparency of structured products, insufficiently identified risks of investment mortgages, intransparency and integrity risks of the real estate industry, quality of mortgage consultancy and the nature and size of the interest risk for consumers, were drawn up under his responsibility. Prior to working for the AFM, Kockelkoren spent seven years at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on the energy, financial services and telecommunication industries. In his last role, that of Associate Principle, he was responsible for the provision of advice to a number of clients in the aforementioned industries. Theodor Kockelkoren obtained an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau (France) and studied Electrical Engineering at the Eindhoven Technical University. Kockelkoren is married and has two daughters and two sons.

  • Mr. Michał Kruszka

    Deputy Director of Analyses and International Cooperation Department, Polish Financial Supervision Authority
    Michał Kruszka joined the KNF – Polish Financial Supervision Authority in September 2010. He served as senior economist, and Head of Research Unit. In August 2012, Michał Kruszka was appointed to the position of Deputy Director of Analyses and International Cooperation Department. He oversees the area of macroprudential supervision, macroeconomic models, statistical analysis, and international cooperation in the field of capital market. Michał Kruszka holds MA in Economics (Poznań University of Economics) and MA in Law (A. Mickiewicz University in Poznań). He holds PhD and habilitation (post-doc scientific degree) in Economics. From 1995 to 2012, Michał Kruszka served as teaching assistant, assistant professor, and associate professor at the Poznań University of Economics. Since 2013, he has been associate professor at the Vistula University in Warsaw. His academic work covers macroeconomics, finance and international trade in services

  • Mr. Levon Hampartzoumian

    Chairman of the Association of Bulgarian Banks
    Mr. Levon Hampartzoumian is the CEO and Chairman of the MB of UniCredit Bulbank since 2001. He represents today the Association of banks in Bulgaria, where he serves as chair of the MB. Mr Levon Hampartzoumian has a degree in Chemical Engineering and professional experience working for PriceWaterHouse Coopers and Earnst&Young. During 1999-2001 he was consecutively Deputy Minister of Economy and Executive Director of Sofia’s Privatization Agency.

  • Ms. Maria Lucia Leitão

    Central Bank of Portugal, Head of Banking Conduct Supervision Department

  • Mr. Bernard Sheridan

    Central Bank of Ireland
    Bernard Sheridan was appointed Director of Consumer Protection at the Central Bank of Ireland in 2010. He has overall responsibility for the Consumer Directorate which consists of two Divisions: Banking Insurance, Investments & Policy and Retail Intermediaries and Payment Institutions. The Directorate is responsible for developing the Consumer Protection Framework and for monitoring compliance with conduct of business requirements by retail firms. It is also responsible for the supervision and authorisation of retail intermediaries, payment institutions and debt management companies. Bernard joined the Central Bank of Ireland in 1985 and has held senior roles in the organisation, including Head of Domestic Credit Institutions, Consumer Protection Codes and Consumer Information. He has previously held the role of Chief Operations Officer of the Investor Compensation Company Limited. Bernard was appointed to the role of Chairperson of the International Consumer Protection Organisation (FinCoNet) at its Annual General Meeting in 2013. This organisation is an informal network of financial consumer protection supervisory authorities whose aim is to promote sound market conduct and strong consumer protection through efficient and effective financial market conduct supervision.

  • Ms. Ralitsa Agayn-Guri

    Deputy Chair of the Bulgarian FSC
    Ms. Ralitsa Agayn is a member of the Board of the Financial Supervision Commission, responsible for the insurance sector. She started her mandate in january 2014. From April, 2005 to May, 2009, she served as a FSC’s Deputy Chairperson in charge of the Insurance Supervision Division. From May, 2009 to July, 2010 Mrs Agayn-Guri was a Deputy Chairperson of the FSC in charge of the Investment Supervision Division. Ms. Agayn holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Saïd Business School - University of Oxford, as well as a Bachelor's and Master 's degree in International Economic Relations from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia.

  • Mr. Robin Simpson

    Consumers International
    Robin Simpson is senior policy adviser for Consumers International, and has been with CI since 2002 having previously worked as head of policy for the UK National Consumer Council. During that time he has worked on CI’s global positions on varied portfolios including water, energy, telecoms, international trade and competition, and in recent years financial services. He represents CI in international forums such as the OECD Committee on Consumer Policy, the OECD/G20 Task force on consumer protection in financial services, ISO (where he has negotiated on the content of international standards across the network services, most recently, mobile payments), and UNCTAD where he was one of CI’s negotiating and drafting team preparing written and verbal submissions, in particular CI’s proposed redraft of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection. He has taken part in CI regional programmes in Latin America on public utilities, ISO programmes in Francophone Africa, and the EU accession process in Eastern Europe, (he has worked with consumer organisations in Bulgaria as well as the neighbouring countries). He is currently working on a World Bank funded programme on Financial services in Russia, recently preparing a paper on responsible lending and consumer credit and worked with the WB in Ukraine in 2011 on the role of civil society in financial sector reform. He is a member of the Technical Advisory Panel of the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility, a trust fund housed in the WB. During 2014, he has been involved in negotiating around mobile payments both for a new ISO draft standard and for OECD policy guidance. He is currently negotiating on digital rights for consumers in the OECD consumer policy committee. His academic background is geography and social administration.

  • Mr. Riccardo Basso

    Bank of Italy
    Riccardo Basso is head of the Regulation unit in the Banking and Financial Supervision Department at the Bank of Italy, where he has been working since 1996. His experience extends to several aspects of banking and financial law, including corporate governance, consumer protection, financial inclusion, banking resolution and recovery, anti money laundering. He has taken part in the EU negotiations on legislative measures concerning consumer credit, mortgage credit, credit rating agencies. Riccardo is a member of the G20/OECD Task Force on Financial Consumer Protection, member of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Public Body for Microcredit, observer of the Italian Advisory Board to the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force. He has a legal academic background.

  • Mr. David Thomas

    World Bank
    David Thomas practised as a lawyer for 28 years, and was then as a financial ombudsman for 14 years - including a term as Chief Ombudsman of the UK Financial Ombudsman Service. He was a founder member of FIN-NET (the European Union network of financial ombudsmen) and is a member of the committee of INFO (the worldwide network of financial ombudsmen). He advises internationally on financial consumer protection. He has advised or given seminars in more than 30 countries worldwide - including for the World Bank, the European Commission and the US Agency for International Development.

  • Mr. Dimitar Koichev

    Director “International cooperation”, Bulgarian FSC
    Mr. Dimitar Koychev is a lawyer who joined the International Cooperation Directorate of the Bulgarian FSC almost eight years ago. Through these years he has been working on the transposition and implementation of the most important pieces of EU legislation in the non-banking financial sector such, as MiFID, Solvency II, Short Selling Regulation, EMIR, etc. During the last couple of years he was part of the interinstitutional working group which, together with the WB team, explored different option for setting an ADR in Bulgaria.

  • Ms. Hranush Aghayan

    Financial System Mediator, Armenia
    Hranush Aghayan is the head of the case handling and investigating group at the Office of Financial System Mediator of Armenia. She has been working in the Office since the first day of its foundation, and was the only employer with the Mediator to form the Office. Hranush previously worked in the Central Bank of Armenia as a researcher and she was the coauthor of the concept on implementation of the financial ombudsman institute in Armenia.

  • Mr. Jerzy Pruski

    IADI President and Chair of Executive Council, President of the Management Board of the Bank Guarantee Fund, Poland
    Jerzy Pruski has been the President of the Management Board at the Bank Guarantee Fund, Poland since 8 September 2009. He was elected as Chair of the Executive Council and President of the International Association of Deposit Insurers on 25 October 2012. Doctor of Economics, University of Lodz, Poland. Mr. Pruski’s current professional activities include serving as Economic Advisor to the President of Poland since October 2010. He is also the representative of the President of Poland at the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and, in his role as President of the Management Board at the Bank Guarantee Fund, Mr. Pruski is a formal member of the Financial Stability Committee. Before joining the Bank Guarantee Fund, in the years 1998-2004, Mr. Pruski was a member of the Monetary Policy Council, a body responsible for setting interest rates at the National Bank of Poland. He was the First Deputy President of the National Bank of Poland from March 2004 to February 2008, where he was responsible for financial stability and open market operations. As a member of the EFC Ad Hoc Working Group on EU Financial Stability Arrangements, he was a co-author of a report on financial stability within the European Union (Report on Developing EU Arrangements for Financial Stability) adopted by the ECOFIN in September 2007. Mr. Pruski has also held several top managerial positions in Polish commercial banks.

  • Mr. Rossen Nikolov

    Chairman of the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund
    Rossen Nikolov is Chairman of the Management Board of the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund (BDIF) since March 2011. Prior to joining BDIF Mr. Nikolov had worked for 14 years in the banking sector. Mr. Nikolov has vast experience in trading of financial instruments, portfolio management and financial risk management. On the occasion of 10th Anniversary of the Bulgarian Dealers’ Association in 2008 he was the guild’s choice for Trader of the Decade. Mr. Nikolov is member of the Executive Council of the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) as well as member of several IADI committees. Mr. Rossen Nikolov holds a master’s degree in Economics and IT from the University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria.

  • Mr. Vladimir Savov

    Member of the Board, Bulgarian FSC
    Mr Vladimir Savov was elected by the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria on January 24th, 2014 for a 6-year term. He holds a MBA Degree from the London Business School and a Master’s in International Economic Relations from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia. Between 1993 and 1998, he worked for Unicredit Bulbank as a manager of Correspondent relations with foreign countries. In 1999 Vladimir Savov completed internships at the departments of Central and Eastern Europe and Global Depository Receipts in The Bank of New York, London. From 2000 to 2009, he worked in Moscow, initially as a senior analyst at Brunswick UBS, and from 2003 to 2006 as a Deputy Director and subsequently - Director of Analysis on the Banking and Consumer Sectors Unit at the Uralsib Capital Bank. Between 2006 and 2009, he was Director of the Analysis Department at the Credit Suisse Investment Bank, and from 2009 to 2013, Mr. Savov was a Managing Director, Head of the Analysis Department at “Otkritie” Financial Corporation, the biggest private financial holding in Russia.

  • Ms. Milena Stoicheva

    Executive Director, Junior Achievement, Bulgaria
    Milena Stoycheva is currently CEO of Junior Achievement – Young Enterprise in Bulgaria, Member and Judge of the Intel Business Challenge Europe Core Team, part of Intel Europe Entrepreneurship Program, and an executive with extensive national and international experience in the area of education and training, entrepreneurship development, business skills and economic and financial literacy. She has been selected as a Member of the Council on Education, Science and Health and Innovation with the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Rossen Plevneliev. She served also as the Chair of the JA Worldwide Member Council (123 Member organizations worldwide) from July, 2008 January 2012, advising on strategic and leadership matters the management of the organization.

  • Mr. Evgeni Evgeniev

    World Bank
    Mr. Evgeni Evgeniev works as private sector development specialist at the World Bank's Private and Financial Sector Development Unit at the Europe and Central Asia Region. He is involved in analytical and advisory activities in the area of financial consumer protection, business regulation and competition and innovation. He authored/co-authored over fifteen World Bank studies since early 2007, when he joined the World Bank. Mr. Evgeniev teaches Master-level students a course on Financial Consumer Protection at VUZF University. He has published over 30 academic papers in international and local journals and he is frequently invited to speak at business and academic forums.

  • Mr. Shaun Mundy

    World Bank
    Shaun Mundy is a consultant, specialising in financial capability and financial services regulation. Since 2008, he has provided consultancy services for the World Bank, OECD and other international organisations, mainly to help countries – including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Indonesia Laos, Malawi, Uganda, Ukraine and Zambia – to develop a national strategy, or programmes, on financial capability. Shaun was head of the Financial Capability Department at the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) from 2003-07, where he led a team of 70 staff and managed a budget of GBP 20 million per year. Shaun had previously held a number of senior financial services regulatory positions. His earlier career was spent at the UK's Home Office and Cabinet Office. Shaun has an MA in Economics and Politics and a Diploma in Criminology, both from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University.

  • Rositsa Wartonick

    Ms. Rositsa Wartonick is one of the founders and a Chairperson of the Financial Literacy Initiative Foundation since 2012. Prior to that she was a head of public communications and financial education programs, and the Consumer Information Center of the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission from its establishment in 2003 until 2011. In the period 2002-2003 Ms. Wartonick was a public financial education advisor of the Financial Markets International (FMI), implementing the project “Regulations and the capital markets”, funded by USAID. Previously, from 1997-2002 she worked as public relations and international cooperation in the Bulgarian Stock Exchange. Ms. Rositsa Wartonick has Master’s degrees in “Economics and Management” and “Slavic Studies” from Sofia University.
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