Bank of Slovenia prizes awarded

To mark the 27th anniversary of the introduction of the Slovenian tolar, the Bank of Slovenia held, for the 26th consecutive year, its traditional presentation of prizes for the best master’s and doctoral theses in the area of finance to students from Slovenian universities. Including this year’s winners, 285 students have now won prizes.

Eleven theses were submitted for consideration this year. The Bank of Slovenia’s Commission for Research Work, which is chaired by Dr Primož Dolenc, selected the following four theses for prizes:

• A master’s thesis prize was received by Kaja Batagelj. Her thesis entitled The Future of Banking: Third-Party Payment Service Providers was supervised by Prof Marko Simoneti of the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Law.
• A master’s thesis prize was also received by Tilen Višnjevec and Neža Zemljič. Their thesis entitled Monetary Policy Shocks and Cross-Country Heterogeneity in the Euro Area was supervised by Prof Igor Masten of the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Economics.
• A master’s thesis prize also went to Matic Zupančič. His thesis was entitled A Local Volatility Model and was supervised by Prof Mihael Perman of the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Mathematics and Physics.
• A doctoral thesis prize was received by Matej Tomec, for his thesis entitled The Impact of Recapitalisation on Profitability and the Macroeconomic Effect of Systemic Banks in the USA and the EU During the Global Financial Crisis, which was supervised by Prof Timotej Jagrič of the University of Maribor’s Faculty of Economics and Business.

The prizes were presented to the winners at a ceremony held on 9 October by the Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Slovenia, Dr Primož Dolenc. In his gala address he said: “I believe that with the knowledge, skills, findings and experience you have gained, we can rely on you to contribute to the future in the ever-dynamic field of finance. At the Bank of Slovenia we know that knowledge is power, and the driver and foundation of progress. We will therefore continue devoting time and resources to education, and to listening to all good ideas. Our doors remain open to highly motivated experts with a good grounding in their subjects, which is what you certainly are. In this way the success and the further development of our institution is assured.”

In the photograph: Dr Primož Dolenc, Deputy Governor (right) and Dr Neven Borak (left) with the prizewinners.