The Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Hanfa) organised the international conference “Capital Markets in the Digital Age: Balancing Innovation & Oversight” in Dubrovnik, bringing together around 100 regulators and industry representatives from across Europe to discuss how digitalisation is reshaping capital markets and supervision. Hanfa Board President Ante Žigman called for simplified and more harmonised regulation that preserves stability and confidence, framing the objective as “smarter regulation” rather than deregulation, and highlighted artificial intelligence as increasingly embedded in trading, portfolio management and risk analysis while creating new vulnerabilities. Croatia’s Ministry of Finance Chief Advisor Matej Bule pointed to the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding on capital-markets development cooperation between Croatia and seven Central and Eastern European countries, focused on deeper market integration, increased retail investor participation and regulatory harmonisation. European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) Executive Director Natasha Cazenave reiterated ESMA’s focus on dialogue around market developments such as tokenisation and its work with national competent authorities to assess benefits and risks for financial stability, investor protection and market integrity, while OECD Director Carmine di Noia highlighted AI-related priorities for regulators spanning financial stability, competition and consumer protection. Conference panels examined regulatory burden simplification, supervision in the age of AI, and the practical implementation challenges of tokenising traditional assets, including infrastructure integration, cross-border rules and potential conflicts with existing requirements.

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