Regulations Concerning Capital Market from Individual Investors Perspective

Purpose: There is no doubt that the capital market is an important part of the modern economy. However, following the deregulations that took place in the 1980s, there were several waves of re-regulation. The most significant changes in the legal environment occurred in the 21st century after the bankruptcy of Enron, then Lehman Brothers and again after the Greek debt crisis in the Eurozone. The research paper raises important issues in the field of personal finance. The aim of the article is to verify whether market is overregulated in the individual investors' opinion. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study examines results of surveys conducted in 2020 and 2024 on the sample of Polish individual investors. Poland, as a member of the European Union with strong position of the Warsaw Stock Exchange is definitely worth to analyse. Findings: The study found that according to individual investors, the capital market is overregulated (59%), regulations are not adequate (46%), regulations are not liberal (47%) and are not supportive (64%). However, simultaneously individual investors are not of the opinion that regulations are oppressive. Although only 25% of respondents positively assessed the functioning of Polish Financial Supervision Authority and only 3% assessed it very positively. Practical Implications: It may be concluded that according to individual investors, capital market is overregulated. Moreover, in both conducted surveys conclusions are similar. Therefore, regulatory body in the European Union and Poland should pay more attention to create more friendly regulatory environment both for investors and companies. Originality/value: Research carried out on the individual investors should be considered valuable, because there is a relatively lower number of research on that group.