Dariusz Adamski, Deputy Chair of the KNF, spoke during the 17th Lawyers Congress organised by the Polish Association of Listed Companies (SEG). He joined a 1:1 conversation with Mirosław Kachniewski, President of SEG, entitled: ‘The role of capital market supervision’. Dariusz Adamski presented a vision of financial watchdog that combines the oversight function with active support for capital market development. He has assigned the key role to legal stability, eliminating unnecessary regulations and building investor confidence. 

He pointed out that his basic understanding of safety in the capital market is legal security, not guaranteed profits for investors. In his view, it is precisely a stable and predictable legal framework that builds the confidence of market participants, which is a prerequisite for market development. He also stressed that public authorities should not be concerned with securing returns on investments, as the capital market inherently entails risk. From the supervisory perspective, it is also important to tackle investment fraud – even when it occurs in OTC markets – as it negatively affects the perception of the capital market as a whole and can undermine investor confidence. 

The Deputy Chair of the KNF also referred to the problem of information disclosure obligations of listed entities. He admitted that some of them are burdensome for issuers, but they are largely a consequence of EU regulations, which Member States have to apply. He pointed out that, in principle, national legislation should not impose additional, redundant obligations over and above EU requirements, unless such additional obligations are clearly justified by Poland-specific factors. In his view, it is particularly unjustified to duplicate the same information in different reports. He declared that the supervision authority was working on the introduction of the ‘once only’ principle, according to which information provided once should not be re-reported under another procedure. 

At the same time, Dariusz Adamski pointed out that excessive regulatory obligations were not the main cause of declining interest in new listings. He believes that the key reason behind this are structural changes in the capital market, including the growing importance of the private market and the change in the functions of the stock exchange. Stock exchange is increasingly becoming a space where funds exit from investments rather than a source of new capital for entrepreneurs. In Adamski’s opinion, this phenomenon is not clearly negative, as it allows funds to recover and reinvest assets in younger, growing actors.

Referring to the role of the KNF, Dariusz Adamski stressed that the role of the supervision authority cannot be limited to sanctioning infringements only. It should also play a market-creating role by supporting the development of the capital market through dialogue with market participants and pro-market-development initiatives. In this context, he mentioned, for example, cooperation with Warsaw Stock Exchange and initiatives supporting the development of private capital market. He also pointed to long-term saving schemes, such as PPK and IKZE, as an important element of market development, which schemes could increase demand for financial instruments and, at the same time, improve the situation of future pensioners. 

The Deputy Chair of the KNF also referred to the supervisory priorities of the UKNF for 2026. Among these, he mentioned speeding up procedures related to prospectus approval and facilitating cooperation with potential issuers, by agreeing in advance on the schedules and methods for preparing documentation.