The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego, “KNF”) is proposing a ban on offering alternative investment companies (“ASI”) to retail clients, as well as significant restrictions on the reclassification of retail clients as professional clients. These measures are presented as aimed at enhancing investor protection.

In the stock market and investor daily “Parkiet”, Szymon Kaczmarek, Advocate and Managing Partner at Loewen, analyses the potential consequences of the proposed regulatory changes.

“The KNF’s proposals are far-reaching and may amount to ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’. Retail investor protection is important, but an overly restrictive approach may lead existing investors to shift into exotic assets, while the ASI market in Poland effectively ceases to exist. First, investors should retain freedom of choice as to how they invest. Second, limited KNF supervision is better than no supervision at all.”

– explains advocate Szymon Kaczmarek in Parkiet.

The article is available on Parkiet’s website:
https://www.parkiet.com/felietony/art38059581-czy-to-koniec-alternatywnych-spolek-inwestycyjnych-w-polsce