Warsaw Stock Exchange

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The Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE or GPW) is an electronic platform offering trading, clearing and settlement of equities, bonds, fund shares, and derivatives. It hosts Poland's benchmark Wig-20 stock market index and currently lists 876 companies. The WSE is the largest exchange in Central and Eastern Europe.
It is the largest developed market in Central and Eastern Europe. It is a public company, the shares of which have been listed since 2010 with a capitalization of about 320 million euros.
The exchange also operates the Polish Power Exchange (TGE), an electricity exchange as well as a marketplace for natural gas, CO2 emissions and property rights in certificates. 
Warsaw Stock Exchange ranked 36th in global derivative exchange volume in 2021 with 11.98 million contracts traded, up 4.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the 2021 Futures Industry Association's Annual Volume Report.
== History ==
Polish capital markets go back to 1817, when the Warsaw Mercantile Exchange was established. Before the Second World War seven stock exchanges operated in Poland.
After Poland's former communist regime was overthrown in 1989, The Warsaw Stock Exchange was created as a joint-stock company on April 12, 1991 by the State Treasury. 
It opened for trading on April 16, 1991. Its first day of trading took place on the top floor of the former Communist Party headquarters, and the exchange traded only five companies with a turnover of $2,000. 
In February 2009, the exchange said it invited four international exchanges to buy the bourse - London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Boerse, Nasdaq OMX and NYSE Euronext. 
The effort fell through in the final weeks of 2009 because of a lackluster response to the offering. Initially, the London Stock Exchange, Nasdaq OMX, NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse all responded to the invitation, but London withdrew before the process was concluded and in the end only the Frankfurt exchange submitted a bid. Following the failed sale, the Treasury decided to organize an IPO for the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
An initial public offering (IPO) of the exchange took place on November 9, 2010. The Polish government, which had owned 98 percent of the bourse, reduced its stake to 35 percent after the exchange agreed to buy a new trading platform from NYSE Euronext in June of 2010. The exchange switched over to NYSE Euronext's new trading platform in April of 2013. 
The IPO by the WSE was the first trading debut by a central European bourse operator.
In 2013, the Warsaw Stock Exchange held talks with the Vienna Stock Exchange about a possible merger or cooperation agreement. However, in the decade following, the WSE's prominence with investors and companies declined, and the merger did not take place.
In May 2022, the board of the Central Bank of Armenia gave its consent for the Warsaw Stock Exchange to acquire the Armenian Stock Exchange. On June 28, 2022, during a ceremony in Yerevan, the Warsaw Stock Exchange signed a share purchase agreement in which WSE acquired a 65.03% stake in the Armenia Securities Exchange (AMX).
== Structure and Regulation ==
The WSE is overseen by Poland's Financial Supervisory Commission, and trading hours are from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The exchange runs on the UTP (Universal Trading Platform), launched in April 2013, which was developed by NYSE Technologies.
== Contract Volume ==
Year	Total Annual Volume	Percent Change
2021	11,985,144 	4.3%
2020	11,489,849 	64.6%
2019	6,980,236 	(-) 14.5%
2018	8,163,654 	7.0%
2017	7,623,156 	(-) 4.4%
2016	7,975,137 	(-) 2.8%
2015	8,205,097 	(-) 14.4%
2014	9,481,427 	(-) 24.8%
2013	12,615,336 	11.6%
2012	11,307,717 	(-) 27.1%
2011	~15,500,000 (est) 	5.6%
2010	14,684,314 	6.2%
2009	13,820,801 	--
== Key people ==
* Tomasz Bardziłowski, Chief Executive
* Marek Dietl, President of the Management Board 
* Monika Gordon, COO, Board Member 
* Adam Mlodkowski, CFO, Board Member 
* Izabela Olszewska CSA, Board Member
== Product Development ==
The futures market started on Jan. 16, 1998 with the launch of Wig-20 index contracts. Corporate bonds were added in 2006
== References ==
== External links ==
*Polish Financial Supervision Authority
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