The position and factors of capital market development in the financial system of the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

In the financial system of the Republic of Serbia, the capital market does not play a significant role - it practically does not perform one of its basic functions - the transfer of resources from surplus to deficit sectors. The Belgrade Stock Exchange, as the only organizer of the Regulated Market and MTP in the country, played a one-time role of transfer and concentration of ownership in the first years of privatization. After that, and considering the significant costs and reporting obligations of listed companies, the delisting process followed - only companies that had to do so by force of law remained on the stock exchange. Also, although the last two decades have been marked by significant regulatory improvements (from shareholder protection, takeover obligations, transparency of public companies' operations), the trading platform is aligned with the practice of regional markets, new market participants are included in the market game (such as investment funds), the domestic capital market has all features of underdeveloped markets. The aim of this paper is to establish how the market participants themselves perceive the factors of capital market development. For this purpose, research was conducted by sending a Google questionnaire to the addresses of all members of the Belgrade Stock Exchange and all registered investment fund management companies. Participants in the research declared themselves on twelve statements that were formulated in such a way as to establish a connection between certain factors and the development of the capital market. The results of earlier research, which represent the basis for the formulation of said claims, are listed in this paper. In addition to the results of earlier research, the formulation of the mentioned claims was also conditioned by the appreciation of the specifics of the domestic capital market, as well as the author's knowledge based on many years of experience in dealing with securities. A five-point Likert scale of attitudes was established for each statement (from 1 to 5), which refer to the determination of respondents regarding the circumstances of the development of the capital market. Respondents were offered a choice between five answers from "Completely dissatisfied", "Partially dissatisfied", "Neither dissatisfied nor satisfied", "Partially satisfied" to "Completely satisfied". The results of the research are presented through frequencies and percentage representation for each claim. Concluding considerations stem from the created descriptive statistics. The results of the survey showed the highest degree of conviction of the respondents when they declare the conditionality of the development of the capital market on the one hand and good mechanisms for informing the investment public on the other. At the same time, the respondents were the most reserved when considering the relationship between foreign portfolio investments and the development of the capital market, that is, the chosen model of privatization and development of the capital market. The research concept represents a new approach in the study of the domestic stock market, with the basic intention to perceive the factors of capital market development from the perspective of the market participants themselves. The intention is to determine their value judgments on the basis of the views of the respondents, in relation to the twelve formulated claims, but also to provide guidelines for future research and potential improvements of the domestic capital market. Each individual claim provides a basis for specific further research, and longer time series data are a solid statistical basis for correlation and regression analysis of defined variables.