CEE Perspective Announces First Student Challenge Winner at Annual Payments Forum

The first edition of the CEE Perspective Student Challenge has found its winner. At this year's CEE Annual Payments Forum, Andrei-Razvan Craciun, a second-year Finance and Banking student at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE), received the inaugural award from Dr. Armin Kammel, Board Member of the CEE Academy, on behalf of the community.

The Challenge was created to bring younger voices from Central and Eastern Europe into the conversation on policy and financial services, encouraging rigorous student analysis of European financial regulation and the market changes reshaping the region. It is now a permanent annual initiative under the CEE Perspective umbrella.

Craciun's winning submission, Regulation as a Competitive Advantage: A Comparative Analysis of DORA Implementation in the Polish and Romanian Banking Systems, examines why identically regulated banking systems in Poland and Romania pursue fundamentally different strategies in responding to the Digital Operational Resilience Act. To answer that question, he constructed an original composite index measuring digital readiness for DORA compliance across four indicators, placing Poland structurally ahead of Romania and linking that gap to divergent supervisory cultures: Poland's KNF acting as a proactive regulatory catalyst, Romania's BNR and ASF operating more reactively. The paper combines SWOT analysis and multi-year scenario projections to reach a central conclusion that runs against the grain of how regulation is typically framed in the region: strategic passivity under DORA is not a neutral position, it is an active accumulation of competitive and operational risk.

Submissions were evaluated on analytical depth, quality of argumentation, credibility of evidence, and relevance to the chosen CEE market. Beyond the prize of €500 and publication of his submission on this platform, Craciun will receive a three-month mentorship with a recognised finance and technology executive.

The CEE Perspective Student Challenge will return in 2027. Details on the next edition will be announced through our website and social media channels.