THE POLISH CAPITAL MARKET FACING INTEGRATION WITH THE

ACTA
UNIVERSITATIS
LODZIENSIS
FOLIA OECONOMICA 182, 2004
A gata Szczukocka*
T H E P O L IS H C A P IT A L M A R K E T FA C IN G IN T E G R A T IO N
W IT H T H E E U R O PE A N M A R K E T
1. Introduction
The process o f adjusting the Polish econom ic system to the rules existing in
the European Union started at the time o f system transform ation. B uilding o f the
capital market started from forming laws and establishing stock m arket and
securities deposit. At that moment already the solutions used in the Union were
taken into consideration.
The main purpose and at the same time great challenge for the Polish securities
market is becoming a part of the European market structure on the basis of
partnership so that the market may play important function in the Polish economy.
2. C apital m arket in Poland
Capital market has been separated as one o f the segm ents o f financial market.
Capital market is the sum o f all transactions of purchases and sales of financial
instruments with redemption longer than a year (Jajuga 1998). The basic aims of
capital market functioning are as follows: effective capital allocation among the
companies em itting instruments o f that market, the proper evaluation o f the market
instruments and gaining profit by investors. Dividing the capital market on the
primary and secondary market, the following basic institutions o f securities
secondary market should be mentioned (Tarczyński 1997):
- Polish National Bank (Narodowy Bank Polski),
- Securities Com m ission (K om isja Papierów W artościow ych) and W arsaw
Stock Exchange (W arszaw ska Giełda Papierów W artościow ych),
' PhD., Department o f Statistical Methods, University o f Łódź.
- National D eposit o f Securities (Krajowy Depozyt Papierów W artoś­
ciowych),
- Stock Exchange,
-U n lis te d securities market,
- B roking Houses (biura maklerskie),
- Investm ent banks,
- Pension funds/schem es,
- Insurance com panies.
In the structure o f the Polish securities market, sim ilarly to the countries in
which the market is well organized, the im portant role is played by Securities
Commission.
The Polish capital market developed greatly within the first few years o f its
existence. A lthough it was being established from the very basis, it had no
specified legal and institutional norms and it had little professional staff, over
relatively short period o f time it managed to develop into the market that meets
the basic world standards. It is considered to be small but dynam ically
developing market based on the rules accepted in such model countries as the
Unites States o f A m erica and the European Union countries.
W hile discussing the capital market in Poland, the problem s it must deal
with, cannot be ignored. One o f the most im portant ones are legal and tax
problems. A lso the clearing system, high em ission costs and high costs of
participating in the capital market operations are also worth m entioning. Another
problem is small developm ent o f the institutional and individual investors’
sectors.
Strong com petition o f foreign secondary markets requires new structural and
technical solutions on the W arsaw Stock Exchange. One o f them is the
possibility o f establishing the common platform o f stock exchange instead o f the
several ones already existing. W hat is more, the stock exchange privatization
enables some foreign investors to enter it. Among the problem s faced by the
Polish capital m arket there is also small control of the ow ners and offence. This
situation can be changed owing to the inner control organs (in banks and
brokerage/broking houses), outer control organizations (K PW iG ) and
prosecuting and judicial institutions.
3. Polish and E u rop ean regulations o f capital m arket
Developm ent o f capital market in the world resulted in a situation in which
the regulations concerning only securities and regulating them were not
sufficient to protect investors. Trade in securities and other capital market
instrum ents requires special regulations concerning m arket organisation,
mediacy in trade transactions and sim plification o f taking investm ent decisions.
In Poland such regulation is made through the act dated 21 August 1997 The act
on public trade in securities, which became binding on 4 January 1998,
replacing the act dated 21 M arch 1991.
In the European Union the regulation o f capital m arket is guarded by the
Com m ittee o f European Securities Regulatos - CESR. It was established in
accordance with the decision o f the European Com m ission (2001/1501/EC )
dated 6 June 2001 as a result o f accepting the so called R eport o f W isem en
Group by the C ouncil led by Alexandre Lam falussy. The C om m ittee adopted all
the output o f the Forum o f European Securities C om m issions (FESCO ) and it
continues the works on all the projects started by the m em bers o f FESCO.
M em bers o f the Com m ittee are institutions supervising capital m arkets o f the
countries o f European Econom ic Area (non m em ber countries o f UE without
vote capacity) and a representative o f European Com m ission. The duties o f
CESR are as follow s (Socha 2003):
- im provem ent o f cooperation between the institutions supervising and
regulating securities markets,
- a c tin g as an advisory group o f European Com m ission and preparing
projects o f securities regulations,
- activities aim ing at constant and efficient putting new regulations into
practice by the m em ber countries.
In the years 1998-2000 Securities and Exchange Com m ission was
a FESCO observer and at the moment it is a m em ber o f C onsulant G roup o f the
Institutions Supervising and R egulating Capital M arkets o f C andidate Countries
for UE and it cooperates with CESR with reference to regulation works within
UE.
In order to cooperate in setting com m on international standards in securities
trade International O rganization o f Securities Com m issions - IOSCO was
founded in 1983. C urrently it has 172 m embers com posed o f ordinary, affiliated
and associated ones. In 1998 the Organization published the docum ent entitled:
The aims and principles o f trade in securities.
The docum ent includes 30 rules concerning the laws regulating trade in
securities. The principles have three main purposes:
- investors protection,
- fair, efficient and transparent market functioning assurance,
- system risk reduction.
In order to achieve those aims, the 30 rules m entioned above m ust be put
into practice according to the suitable laws. The rules can be grouped into eight
categories:
A. Rules concerning regulation organ.
B. Rules concerning autoregulation.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
Rules
Rules
Rules
Rules
Rules
Rules
concerning
concerning
concerning
concerning
concerning
concerning
execution o f laws regulating securities trade.
cooperation in regulating.
emitents.
program mes of group investments.
market agents.
secondary market.
4. Strategy o f capital m arket developm ent
The governm ent program focuses on the following strategy o f capital market
developm ent:
I. E u ro p e a n U nion In teg ratio n
- T o m aintain the achieved harmonization o f laws regulating the Polish
capital market with the European Union instructions.
- T o incorporate GPW and KDPW into European structures enabling them
to become com petitive in a region together with retaining investors and emitents
matters.
- To form the ow nership structure and the rules o f GPW and KDPW acting
that will prom ote developm ent o f national capital market and the dem and of
future com petition on the com m on European Union market. It dem ands the
Agenda W arsaw City 2010 project creating which aims at changing W arsaw into
regional finance-capital centre such as London City, Frankfurt Finanzplatz or
Paris Europlace. The project also aims at privatization o f W arsaw Stock
Exchange and the increase in the capitalization from the present 21% to almost
50% G D P within the next six years.
II. T h e use of o p en pension fun ds potential
- Privatization o f the im portant com panies o f the Exchequer through the
public capital market over the next few years. Privatization offers for pension
funds.
- D evelopm ent o f the market o f indebted securities, including the market of
letters o f deposit, treasury bonds, municipal and corporation bonds.
- D evelopm ent o f the electronic platform o f treasury bonds turnover in
accordance with the standards o f the public capital m arket - System of
Securities Dealers.
III. D evelopm ent o f public capital m a r k e t as the so urce o f capital
re taining
- Developm ent o f mechanisms that prom ote financing infrastructural
programs by pension funds, including the use o f infrastructural funds of
European Union.
-P re p a rin g neutral and stable tax solutions. In case o f taking eventual
decision to im pose taxes on the income earned on the public capital market,
special tax rules should be prepared and announced at least 1,5 year in advance,
so that investors have tim e to adjust.
- Increase in the efficiency o f cooperation between Civil Service units and
prosecuting units in tracking and punishing offence connected with public trade
in securities.
- Increase in the clarity o f financing units o f self-governm ents.
Increase in the use o f public capital in getting financial means for investm ent
o f the self-governm ent units.
Taking some special system means i order to make the Polish capital market
more com petitive sustaining the proper level o f safety in trade.
5. Advantages and dangers for the Polish capital market
The agreem ent on the unconstrained capital flow betw een Poland and EU
(according to the art. 73 b o f M aastricht Treaty) and putting into practice other
liberties means that Poland will join united inner market o f EU. All the benefits
that can be expected have the following roots (Socha J. 2003):
- savings resulting from the end o f trade barriers within European Union,
- savings resulting from the full liberalization o f financial market,
- intensification o f inner com petition
- increase in the production range
-e lim in a tin g the restrictions connected with the access to public orders
market
The possible effects in the Polish economy due to the introduction of
unconstrained capital flow are as follows:
- increased inflow o f capital (in various forms), contributing to the increase
in its supply on the national market, will press for lowering interest rate, so it
may happen that the value o f capital will be lowered;
- the lowered value o f capital will make it more accessible for investors, that
m eans possibility to stim ulate investm ent in the country and som e other
processes o f growth;
- the lowered value o f capital will result the increase in the accessibility for
investors, which means the possibility o f the investm ents stim ulation and
additional grow th processes starting;
- the lowered value o f capital results in few er advantages for those who
make some savings and more advantages for investors: net benefits o f Poland as
far as prosperity is concerned will be connected with the difference between the
benefits o f investors and losses o f those who make savings;
- the rate o f profit division among the main social groups in the country
(profits of work factor versus income from capital) may become different; in
Poland, the country receiving capital, an increase in benefits from work can be
expected and at the same time a decrease in profit gained by capital owners;
such a situation is highly welcomed by trade unions; that effect will only appear
if markets will function properly;
- it is possible that the balance o f paym ents may becom e worse for some
time due to the liberalization o f capital-financial market, depending on the
structure o f capital arriving to Poland; in case o f large inflow o f short-tem
capital and appearance o f some factors that have an adverse effect on the
financial stability, the outflow o f capital may appear that may have bad influence
on m onetary policy; at the same time the inflow o f long-term investm ent in
Polish econom y (for instance direct foreign investment and reinvestm ent o f the
profits resulting from it) may subdue the above mentioned difficulties in balance
of paym ents;
- integration o f the market o f production factors (including capital) can
simplify restructurization and the process of liberalization o f trade in custom s
union; liberalization o f capital flow may activate dynam ic effects o f custom s
union;
- the integration o f production factors market (including capital) can
facilitate restructuring, which accom pany the trade liberalization processes in the
custom s union; that is why the liberalization o f capital flows can quicken the
realization o f the dynam ic effect o f the custom s union;
- also the effect o f forming and moving the capital stream may be observed
that opposed form ing and moving o f capital stream in custom s union between
Poland and EU;
- also dynam ic effects may take place through strengthening o f com petition
between financial organizations in Poland, it will increase scale benefits and
service quality; banking sector, protected in the past, will be negatively
influenced but everybody involved in financial market will take advantage o f it;
- also the effect o f area concentration is possible to appear, that m eans in
case o f difference in the level o f developm ent o f financial markets, that is
present between Poland and EU member countries and in case o f easy founding
a com pany, transfer o f the surplus of dem and and supply to financial centres is
possible, as well as the situation in which m oneylender and borrow er will move
there all their activity; such an effect would be highly undesirable for Poland.
It is also worth em phasising that the wrong sequence o f general
liberalization processes between integrating sides can lead to great losses.
Introduction o f full capital mobility between Poland and EU, w ithout removing
tariff obstacles in trade, will result in loss for producers and reduction o f profits
for the governm ent. Therefore, before form ing custom s union, com m on capital
market should be first established. Since rem oving tariff obstacles in trade in
industry articles is highly advanced, the above m entioned problem refers to tariff
obstacles referring to agricultural articles.
EU m em bers’ experiences shows that the accession is a very im portant
im pulse for the econom y developm ent, including the capital market. Some
numerical data prove that Poland also has such chances.
The value o f com panies quoted in the W arsaw Stock Exchange (29,3 billion
Euro in the end o f the year 2003) is alm ost the same as the sum o f the
capitalization o f succeeding three Central European Stock Exchanges in respect
o f the volume: Hungarian Stock Exchange (13,2 billion Euro o f capitalization),
Czech Stock Exchange (12,3 billion Euro) and Slovenian Stock Exchange (5,6
billion Euro). This Stock Exchange is also a leader taking into account the
turnover volum e in the shares market, which am ounted to 8 , 8 billion Euro. The
increase in the main stock exchange index (W IG 20), which am ounted to alm ost
34% proved that the polish market can be more attractive for investors than other
European markets.
Fig. 1. The change o f stock exchange indexes o f som e o f the European stock exchanges in the year
2003
S o u r c e : Annual R eport o f the W arsaw Stock Exchange.
The levels o f shares and forward contracts turnovers o f the last year as well
as the exchange capitalization o f the national com panies testifies to the
international status o f the W arsaw Stock Exchange.
Fig. 2. Shares turnovers - monthly averages in the year 2003 (billion Euro) - individually
calculated
S o u r c e : As same as Fig. 1.
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350 000
300 000
250 000
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150 000
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Fig. 3. Volum e o f the forward contracts turnover on the main indexes - monthly average in the
year 2003
S o u r с e: As same as Fig. 1.
Fig. 4. Exchange capitalization o f the national companies - December 2003 (billion Euro)
S o u r c e : As same as Fig. 1.
There are various advantages o f the m em bership agreem ent. One should
expect that our European region com panies’ interest in the W arsaw Stock
Exchange securities quotation will increase. The above data also suggest that the
risk o f the transfer o f the national com panies quotation to the foreign floors will
decrease. On the other hand, the securities transactions o f European countries
can becom e the new source o f the stock exchange m em bers’ income.
6. C on clusion
Now adays capital m arket is an important part o f every free m arket economy.
It enables com panies to obtain, relocate and invest capitals in such a way that
they bring profit.
As results from the above mentioned facts and conclusions, the Polish
capital m arket although it is well-prepared for the integration with the European
Union, has still many problem s to solve if it wants to become sim ilar to those
existing in the countries o f well-developed econom ies. It is worth m entioning
that the Polish financial market is considered to be solid, transparent and
reliable, it m eans that legal rules referring to that field o f econom y conform to
the world standards. However, lack o f efficiency, liquidity and innovations
results in such a situation that many com panies decide to invest its savings in
banks, giving sim ilar return on investm ent and sm aller investm ent risk. It seem
that the solution to that problem and many other can be integration process.
R eferences
J aj u g a К. (red.) (1998), Rynek kapitałowy, inwestycje fin an sow e, Wroclaw.
T a r c z y ń s k i W. (1997), Rynki kapitałow e, Warszawa.
S o c h a J. (2003), Rynek p a p ieró w w artościow ych w Polsce, Warszawa.
R aport roczny 2 0 0 3 G P W w W arszaw ie, Strona internetowa OPW w Warszawie.
Agata Szczukocka
PO LSK I R YNEK K A PITA ŁO W Y W P ER SPE K TY W IE INTEG RACJI
Z RYNK IEM EU R O PEJSK IM
W artykule starano się szczególną uwagę zwrócić na szanse i korzyści, jakie m ogą zaistnieć
dla polskiego rynku kapitałowego w wyniku integracji z rynkiem europejskim. Skoncentrowano
się także na strukturze rynku kapitałowego w Polsce i regulacjach prawnych. Przybliżony został
także program rządu dotyczący strategii rozwoju rynku kapitałowego w Polsce.