For a long time, the VZMD  -together with their colleagues from the European Federation of Investors  (Better Finance) - have persistently warned about the by-ways of the Slovene legislation, which, as opposed to environments striving to attract domestic and foreign investors,  are more focused on protecting financial intermediaries from minority shareholders than vice versa. On the occasion of adopting the new Financial Instruments Market Act (ZTFI-1), which the financial authorities are in a rush to adopt under urgent procedure and without a public hearing, the VZMD’s associates have pointed out three areas that seem particularly questionable for minority shareholders:

1.   applying arbitrary limitations to schemes and programs established to protect minority shareholders, primarily the "Share SUPPORT", which in two years since its founding, has helped over 2,200 Slovene minority shareholders, 1,200 of which already reaped some profitsin the total amount of € 370,000 from selling “worthless” shares; 
2.   financial intermediaries reselling shareholders and investors to one another, as if they were objects or goods lacking their own will and personality;
3.   financial intermediaries charging provisions for each dividend payout, which for minority shareholders often exceed the amounts paid as dividends.

For each of the above issues, the VZMD prepared constructive and well-supported proposals to amend ZTFI-1 and efficiently address the unnecessary troubles having adverse effects on society at large. Whilst the Ministry of Finance together with the ATVP responded to the proposals formulated by the VZMD, the contents of their response indicate a critical ignorance of the matter, which one would not expect from experts, whose supposed task is to protect investors. Therefore, the VZMD expresses its concern  that there is in fact a deeper cause for the firmly rooted favoritism of financial oligarchs! This is why the VZMD’s associates firmly reject the response from the Ministry of Finance and the ATVP, and call to end this ignominious practice of instrumentalizing the Financial Instruments Market Act to subject it to the never-ending ambitions of the ATVP as an obvious transmission of the financial industry (VIDEO from the meeting of the Finance Committee on October 28th 2016), which aims to prevent minority shareholders to effectively unite under any other expert organization outside the tight (or suffocating) embrace of financial intermediaries. Since two years ago, when the VZMD together with the expert help from lawyers established the "Share SUPPORT" scheme, (VIDEO) the ATVP directs its attempts to eliminate it (VIDEO from the Financial Committee meeting on February 2nd 2017) with more and more legislative changes, which are blindly followed by the Ministry of Finance.

How many more times will the ATVP change the legislation that applies to lawyer’s trust accounts for securities (also used by "Share SUPPORT"), before it finally in its role of regulative authority and expert finds an expert solution that will be applicable at least more than a year?! The VZMD notes that it was the ATVP to request the change of the legal regulation of the lawyer’s trust accounts already in 2017 (Official Journal of the Republic of Slovenia no. 9/17 from February 24th 2017). Was the Agency in 2017 not familiar with the reasons to which it refers right now? Or maybe the real reason is that the said change did not reach its real goal, which was to destroy "Share SUPPORT" – a thorn in the side of financial oligarchs and their militia of officials? With the current legislative proposal the ATVP and the Ministry of Finance wish to limit the duration of the "Share SUPPORT" to 12 months – the same period that applies for lawyer’s trust accounts. Such limitation is arbitrary and unique compared to other EU members.  What's more, such limitation is nonpareil in Slovenia as well, since no limitations apply to the duration of lawyer’s trust accounts.  A lawyer representing shareholders as sellers, is obligated to carry out the sale with expert diligence. If lawyers have to mind a time limitation, this could impose significant limitations to their work in general. This, of course, will benefit the opposite parties (potential buyers), who are aware of the time limitation and exert additional pressure on sellers. In addition, the Republic of Slovenia or its Ministry of Finance should be acutely aware of the fact that selling “under pressure” never yields optimal results.

As stated at the beginning, the repressing proposal from the Ministry of Finance goes as far as to expressly contradict European rules, since it disregards the fact that Article 38 of the Regulation (EU) No.909/2014 prohibits imposing additional restrictions on trust accounts in addition to those not valid on September 17th 2014. While the Ministry of Finance doesn’t know how to respond to the justified criticism by the VZMD with regard to non-compliance of the proposal to limit lawyer’s trust accounts with European rules, it doesn't hesitate to respond in lines with the previously cited positions acquired from the Meeting of Truth, namely that: “Anyone can avoid the general prohibition to establish trust accounts imposed by the Republic of Slovenia by opening such accounts abroad.” Such statements surely go beyond the discussion about the proposed amendments from the VZMD and call for a broader debate about the values, objectives, and accountability of officials, who fail to find such positions questionable.

Another issue that deserves to be addressed within a broader discussion are the manipulative statements by the Ministry of Finance according to which the regulation of lawyer’s trust accounts would enable a more efficient securities enforcement. According to publicly available data, there is somewhere around a few € 100,000 and in any case not more than a few million € worth of assets on lawyer’s trust accounts in the entire Republic of Slovenia. Meanwhile, trust accounts of big (and foreign) financial intermediaries contain several billion euros worth of Slovene securities. That said, one may ask, what exactly have the Ministry of Finance and the ATVP done up until now to enable a more efficient enforcement directed at these trust accounts? If they failed to do anything and these accounts really represent a big issue in terms of enforcements, then no current office-holder deserves to retain their post for much longer. In fact, ten full years had passed, before they decided to take action directed at the lesser (exclusively domestic) part of lawyer’s trust accounts, since there are not many foreign lawyers and notaries in Slovenia. On the other hand, trust accounts of foreign financial moguls, which contain AT LEAST A THOUSAND TIMES GREATER ASSET, are left untouched! If, on the contrary, lawyer's trust accounts do not pose a problem in terms of enforcements, this is obviously just a misleading attempt to intimidate with safety risks, which only exist in the heads of the financial industry militia.

Another sore point of the minority shareholders, who are victims of systemic abuses, are the disgraceful practices of brokerage companies and banks which resell shareholders as if they were bags of potatoes and, of course, in turn receive big sums in commissions, which could very well go to shareholders in the form of (lower, that much is true) compensations. The VZMD's proposal was that brokerage companies should not be entitled to any payment from the financial intermediary for transferring their clients according to Article 187 of the ZTFI-1. In addition, the VZMD suggested that the brokerage companies should not charge any compensation in connection to such transfers, even if the client/shareholder chooses to transfer to another brokerage company in case that the current financial intermediary (deliberately!) decides to cease their activity.

The Ministry of Finance and the ATVP continue to shamelessly apologize and justify the existing situation by stating that this is a contractual relationship between two legal entities, or a relationship between a client and their brokerage company. How can this be deemed a contractual relationship, if the shareholder is deprived of any influence on the decision made by the financial intermediary to cease its activities and sell the shareholder to another intermediary?! What kind of contracts do the advocates of the financial industry have in mind when one contractual party entering such contract is denied all rights? Furthermore, when a shareholder wishes to deliberately transfer to another financial intermediary, they incur disproportionate (punitive) costs, regardless of the fact that the rise of the need to change financial intermediary has nothing to do with them. How could it be that in the Republic of Slovenia we understand the concept of free choice of service and the pertaining right of the consumer to change providers with little to no cost in areas such as electric power supply, telecommunications, and even banking, while the Ministry of Finance and the ATVP deny such rights to consumers wanting to change their financial intermediary in the field of securities brokerage, with which they stifle competition?! Is contractual freedom a concept that is alien to the areas of electric power supply, telecommunications, and banking? Or is it merely that minimal legal safety-nets need to be applied to protect the weaker party so that “contractual freedom” doesn’t degenerate into something that would only give rights to the stronger party? How can it be that these severe problems are being addresses solely due to the VZMD’s persistent efforts and warnings, and that the Ministry of Finance or the ATVP do nothing on their own to regulate the area, which would put an end to the practice of treating people as assets from a balance sheet?

Moreover, the Ministry of Finance doesn’t take seriously the issue, which is unique to Slovenia – charging fees for single payouts by financial intermediaries. In addition, the Ministry fakes ignorance and deceives by saying that the current legislation offers shareholders the possibility to combine payouts to reduce the disproportional compensation costs incurred to them. Even if minority shareholders had the possibility to reach an agreement with the brokerage company, which would be different from the one defined by law, in practice the realization of such arrangement would depend entirely on the arbitrary decision made by the financial intermediary. In fact, an agreement which would derogate from the legal regulation, would only be possible with the consent of the brokerage company, which means that the Ministry of Finance offers shareholders a “handout” from the financial intermediaries instead of codified rights, which the financial intermediaries would have to follow even against their wishes! Only by codifying this legal right, all shareholders would have the possibility to exercise it. The VZMD immediately verified the guarantees made by the Ministry of Finance, which said that it is possible to reach an agreement on joint payouts to reduce the costs of separate payouts. However, the exact same brokerage company, which the Ministry indicated as the one to enable such practice, responded (as expected by the VZMD) that this is in stark contrast to the guarantees made by the Ministry. The brokerage company explicitly wrote that they “do not carry out billing and payout in this manner”, which means that the guarantees given by the Ministry of Finance are merely a dead letter reflecting complete ignorance of the matter and that the Ministry turns a blind eye to the untenable and adverse current situation. That said, it is of vital importance that the amendment proposed by the VZMD be adopted.

In so doing, the Ministry of Finance and the ATVP, with their attempt to gloss over the increasingly evident fact indicating their favoritism, showed their true colors. At this point, only the upright stance of the members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia may prevent further abuse of shareholders and investors by financial oligarchs, who are backed by the “act”. Namely, the Bill on ZTFI-1 (the new act containing no less than 562 articles!), which was supposedly prepared by the Ministry of Finance and the ATVP, didn’t see a single comment from the financial intermediaries! After the public announcement of their amendments to the proposal for the ZTFI-1, the VZMD presented the thorny issues, arguments, and experience gained by working directly in this area for 13 years, at the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia to the representatives of the parties SD, SDS, and NSi, which have responded to their appeal. At the DeSUS party, they thanked the VZMD for their initiative and refused the meeting since "VZMD’s representatives will get the chance to present their views," at the upcoming meeting of the Financial Committee. At the VZMD, they advocate reasonable and factual arguments, which they hope will prevail at the meeting of the Financial Committee of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia.

Other Related International Activities:

BANK OF SLOVENIA - candidates for Governor receive four straightforward questions posed by the VZMD with regard to terminating inadmissible managerial practices and their view of current burning issues

ECB - VZMD indignation over recent EU pressures forcing Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution to withdraw from investigation of criminal acts committed during excessive capitalization of Slovenian banks, and ex-Governor

ECB / EC - The VZMD supports the proposed bringing of the legal action against the European Commission and the European Central Bank for their role in expropriations in Slovenian banks in 2013

INSTANT DISMISSAL OF GOVERNOR! - reaffirmation of VZMD's shocking analyses and statements in regard to the billion-euro "Plunder of the century" during the bank "restructuring" and direct responsibility of the National bank of Slovenia executives for enormous damages to the citizens and the Republic of Slovenia

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO REPORT from the meeting of the Committee of the Slovenian National Council which unanimously took VZMD’s side after facing off with the Securities Market Agency (ATVP) and the Ministry of Finance regarding the disputable Article 25 of the amending act to the Financial Instruments Act

EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK - official letter by the Slovenian MEP about serious issues regarding the unjustified calculations on which the expropriations and nationalization of all Slovenian systemic banks were based - again no actual answer!

vzmd.newswire.com – Do the Slovenian authorities really only react to referendum initiatives?! - Due to complete disregard by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, the VZMD is forced to continue the internationalization of the unique(!) bail-in restructuring of Slovenian banks together with mass expropriation and enormous damage to all taxpayers

THE SUPREME COURT - the highest ordinary court of law in Slovenia also bolstered the position of the VZMD: the law with which the self-proclaimed "domestic troika" nationalized as many as six of our banks is unconstitutional!

CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION due to alarming advertising by financial intermediaries and detrimental effects of abolishing registry accounts which could lead to disappearance of 200,000 small investors and bring about catastrophic consequences for the issuers (public limited companies) and the entire capital market

vzmd.newswire.com – in view of the disregard of the Government and financial authorities in the Republic of Slovenia, the VZMD is compelled to point out to the burning issues of the bail-in restructuring of Slovenian banks along with the expropriation of shareholders and bondholders through international media

LUXEMBOURG - The reasoned opinion published today by the Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice reaffirm the arguments made by VZMD and the expropriated investors

EU Commission & Slovenian Government - European warnings due to detrimental consequences of expropriation and a call to resolve the untenable situation as soon as possible

BANKIA – a success of Spanish minority shareholders encourages also the expropriated share and bond owners in Slovenia – invitation to obtain compensation

PARIS – the highest representatives of European investors' associations were very interested in hearing the in-depth presentation by Mr. Kotnik and Mr. Verbič regarding the 'bail-in' procedures in the EU, and were extremely surprised by the unique and radical, downright disastrous violations and expropriations in the Republic of Slovenia

PARIS – in the General meeting of the European Federation of Investors, Mr. Kotnik and Mr. Verbič acquainted prominent international participants with the scandalous expropriation of shareholders and bondholders of Slovenian banks, activities and endeavors of the VZMD - PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association

LUXEMBOURG – on Tuesday it was the first time for Slovenia to stand before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice due to the expropriation of shareholders and bondholders of Slovenian banks

Slovenian EUR 264 million to pay off investors in shares and bonds of Greek banks as well – Slovenian authorities continue to thumb their nose at expropriated investors in Slovenian banks and their own taxpayers - BUT FOR HOW LONG!?!

EU COURT - prior to the pending public hearing in Luxembourg, new shocking facts have come out in regard to the background of the (dual) plunder of holders of shares and bonds of Slovenian banks and at the same time the plunder of all Slovenian taxpayers which rampantly keeps going on!

Slovenian EUR 264 million to pay off investors in shares and bonds of Greek banks as well – Slovenian authorities continue to thumb their nose at expropriated investors in Slovenian banks and their own taxpayers - BUT FOR HOW LONG!?!

EU COURT in Luxembourg should hold oral proceedings in the process of preparing responses for the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia - the motion of expropriated holders of subordinated bonds and shares of Slovenian Banks represented by VZMD put forward

BRUSSELS – European Federation of Investors (BETTER FINANCE) presented the only(!) objective Report on the real return of pension savings funds – the PanSlovenian Investors' & Shareholders' Association (VZMD) also actively espousing reforms of the pension savings and funds systems in the EU

EUROPEAN COMMISSION officially bolstered the position of VZMD stating that its »Banking Communication« is not a legally binding act - the Bank of Slovenia and Slovenian financial authorities insist on the exact opposite and in fighting against their own citizens they disgrace themselves by trying to apologize for scandalous measures and fallacies

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY unanimously responded to the VZMD's rationale and appeal - significant cost reduction for all minority shareholders and investors (approximately 400,000 citizens) with the new amendment to the amending act of the Book Entry Securities Act

THE COALITION'S AMENDMENT to a large extent follows the VZMD proposals to alleviate the catastrophic impact of the amending act of ZNVP-1, however yesterday VZMD sent a constructive opinion and another appeal to the National Assembly to make slight additional efforts in reaching an optimal solution

ANOTHER 260,000 EXPROPRIATED – VZMD has attempted to alleviate the abolishment of registry accounts by amending the Book Entry Securities Act through the COMPROMISE AMENDMENT AND APPEAL to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia

The District Court and the Higher Court officially acknowledge VZMD arguments concerning the unconstitutionality of expropriations, however the proceedings have been suspended until the final decision has been reached by the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, which contacted the EU Court in Luxembourg - VZMD has provided written standpoints thereto after a world-class EU law expert joined the team

ATTENTION - unveiling evidence against the unlawfulness of Slovenian banks valuations and the overblown "bank gap" as a foundation for billion euro damage to the state and its citizens, based on unlawful actions by Bank of Slovenia and its Emergency measures decisions

Is the European Commission attempting to obstruct the investigation and protect the responsible persons?! The unprecedented provocation opens plethora of grave issues about processes, structure and perspectives of the EU -

»PLUNDER OF THE CENTURY« - VIDEO CONFRONTATION & disclosure of misleading statements of the Bank of Slovenia, the previous Slovenian government and other protagonists of the highly questionable 2013 bank restructuring, involving mass expropriation of citizens

EU PARLIAMENT & COUNCIL – VZMD contended with the progress & results of harmonization of the Proposed directive for encouraging long-term shareholder engagement, but warns of completely different practices as well as catastrophic repercussions of the Slovenian proposed amendment to the Book Entries Securities Act which is linked to the same Directive

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

BANK OF SLOVENIA – »a year later« with a new secret resolution continues the destructive policy, on the basis of an already stipulated »calculation« of negative capital - the deletion of all subordinated bonds and stocks, also in Slovenia's sixth bank

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

WARSAW - the evening award ceremony, the second day of the »Warsaw Capital Market Summit 2014« international conference and beginning of the conference organized by International Monetary Fund and National Bank of Poland with active participation of VZMD through investo.si and investo.international programs (Warsaw, October 2014)

BANK OF SLOVENIA / NLB - unprecedented deceit of renowned international financial companies and investors - VZMD informed them of concealed facts, in its endeavor of protecting investors, and called for inacting supervision, proper sanctions of those responsible, alleviation of consequences, and thus preservation of the remaining reputation of the Republic of Slovenia (Ljubljana, September 2014)

NEW YORK – VZMD President invited to be a guest-speaker at the Annual Conference of the International Financial Litigation Network (IFLN) yesterday – shortly after a successful business delegation in Iran, he also participated in a discussion in the world's financial centre with some distinguished international lawyers and representatives from key law offices regarding the scandalous expropriation of the owners of shares and bonds at Slovenian banks - an alarming case indicating problems in the (New York, May 2014)

EUROPEAN COMMISSION – a reminder to the EU Commission President J.M. Barroso about the unequal treatment of Slovenia, and about the endangered financial, economic and social stability accompanying scandalous expropriation of share and bond owners at Slovenian Banks – a letter of the Civil Society Initiative and NKBM Section at VZMD to the EU Commission President is soon to be presented in the European Parliament as well (Brussels, March 2014)

EXPROPRIATION – VZMD has filed three more lawsuits, this time against the banks, because the entry of subordinated bonds and shares termination in the register has been established as null – further use of all legal remedies to protect the expropriated owners, the signatories to the VZMD Agreement, and granting authority to the law office (Ljubljana, February 2013)

Slovenian Constitutional Court acknowledges the legal interest of 293 initiators united by VZMD who demanded a constitutional review of the Banking Act (Ljubljana, January 2013)

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT acknowledged the legal interest of 290 initiators, united by VZMD who demanded constitutional review of the Banking Act; the Court has given priority to the two VZMD initiatives but suspension of the Act was rejected, due to misleading statements by the Government and the Bank of Slovenia - shares and subordinated bonds of 100.000 owners had been erased in the three biggest Slovenian banks! (Ljubljana, December 2013)

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO REPORT about the week of the MOSCOW-VIENNA-CAPETOWN conferences involving the following: active participation of the international business-investment VZMD programmes, signing a memorandum with the Russian Federation of Investors, and protection of rights of the Slovene and European shareholders at the Viennese conference »The Financial Repression of Savers and Investors« (Moscow, Vienna, Cape Town, October 2013)

NKBM = BANKIA – mass protests take place in front of The Central Bank of Spain (CBS) because of national fraud against 350,000 shareholders who are represented by the law firm that is attending, along with VZMD (Pan−Slovenian Shareholders’ Association), the international initiative at CBS. (Madrid, September 2013)

WORLD BANK – President of VZMD and EuroFinUse Board Member speaker of the first panel at the international conference about audit reform and the importance of audit committees (Bucharest, June 2013)

VIDEO REPORT – exclusively from the European Parliament: the EuroFinUse international conference and the Election Assembly, the announcement of the new President and Board of directors of this influential European association, into which a representative of Slovenia is also re-elected (Brussels, March 2013)

BRUSSELS – Slovenia with VZMD once more elected to the top of the European Federation of Financial Services Users – intensive international activities today continue with a conference in the European Parliament (Brussels, March 2013)

TOKYO – conclusion of the visit of Slovene economic and political delegation with Slovenian-Japanese Business & Investment Forum and the reception at Japanese investors’ association – the active role of VZMD with its international investors’ programs investo.si and investo.international(Tokyo, March 2013)

INDIA – visit of Slovenian government and business delegation – on the basis of Memorandum between ICPE and VZMD international investors' programs investo.si and investo.international also present (New Delhi, February 2013)

Memorandum of cooperation signed between the International Center for Promotion of Enterprises (ICPE) and VZMD, with additional expansion of activities within the framework of international investment programs investo.si and investo.international (Ljubljana, January, 2013)

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO REPORT of “International Conference on Benefits and Challenges of Public Private Partnerships for improving Energy Efficiency” – key statements of prominent participants (Ljubljana, October, 2012)

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO REPORT from EuropeanIssuers International Conference on »The future of European Equity Markets« at the Milan Stock Exchange – programs investo.si in investo.international also at the upcoming International Investors´ Conference in Wiesbaden (Milano, November 2012)

VIDEO REPORT - International Conference at the Brussels Stock Exchange Stimulated Investors' Representatives and Institutions to Participate at the Investors' Week 2012 in September in Slovenia(Brussels, March 2012)

www.vzmd.si – More on the VZMD – PanSlovenian Shareholders' Association

www.vzmd.tv and www.investo.tv – Over 300 videos from VZMD.TV and investo.tv

www.investo.si – More on the investo.si – Invest to Slovenia Program

www.invest-to.net – More on the network of 65 national organizations of shareholders and investors – invest-to.net