A statement from the Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of the International Investment bank (IIB) Georgy Potapov was one of the first to open a 37^th conference of the Banking Association of Central and Eastern Europe (BACEE) that took place in Budapest, Hungary on October 15-16, 2018. IIB traditionally supported this important financial regional event as a “gold” sponsor.

The main theme of this year’s BACEE conference was the evaluation of risk measurements and analysis of opportunities related to the development of the financial sector of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Mr. Potapov presented the audience with a detailed analysis of the current global macroeconomic situation, highlighted the rising importance of international development financial institutions for a comprehensive evolution of national and regional economies, shared views on challenges that development banks face these days and suggested a number of tools for their successful tackling.

IIB speaker paid special attention to priority operations of the Bank in CEE highlighting the fact that the region has become a key geography for the institution – it is represented by 5 out of 9 shareholders - and the share of CEE in the loan-documentary portfolio currently exceeds 53%.

Georgy Potapov outlined the results achieved by the Bank in various directions of activities, touched upon results of a successfully implemented reform of a corporate governance system and informed the conference participants of a number of significant matters that are currently being discussed by the IIB shareholders. Namely, expansion of IIB presence and operations in Europe in general and Hungary, in particular, as well as potential establishment of a banking group with the International Bank for Economic Cooperation (IBEC).

Over 120 leaders and experts of the CEE financial organisations took part in the conference, as well as specialists from Austria, Albania, Belarus, Germany, Italy, Romania, Russia, the United Kingdom etc. The future development of banking institutions of CEE and CIS, possible expansion of SME support in the region, export-import operations, risk management and compliance issues, influence of digital revolution for the financial sector were among a few topics discussed during plenaries and round tables within the course of the conference.

On the sidelines of the conference IIB held a number of meetings with Hungarian financial institutions, including Development Bank of Hungary, Hungarian Eximbank, OTP Bank, etc.