Changes at the Warsaw Stock Exchange

The Warsaw Stock Exchange has recently got a new management board and supervisory board. During corridor talks, people discussed who would be the president of the state company. Jarosław Grzywiński, a lawyer delegated by the supervisory board to temporarily manage the company, expressed hopes to keep the position. A moment later Marek Dietl, a doctor of economics from Krakow announced his candidacy, and it is he who on 16 June was appointed by the general shareholders’ meeting of WSE to serve a full term as the president.

Marek Dietl in the years 2008-2012 was an investment manager at National Capital Fund, currently he teaches at the Warsaw School of Economics. He was a member of 23 various investment committees and supervisory boards. On 23 February 2016, he was appointed to the position of economic advisor of the President of Poland. It should be also noted that Dietl worked with the Chancellery of the President during Bronisław Komorowski’s term as well, preparing the act on forms of innovativeness support. It was he who among other things created a framework for converting CHF mortgage loans at the so-called “fair rate”. Unfortunately, the project got held off due to the immense costs that the banking sector would have to cover.

Jarosław Grzywiński during his short term had an opportunity to organize commemorations of 200 years of the Warsaw stock exchange, he also launched a start-up accelerator at WSE. He declared his intention to bring nobility back to the Warsaw stock exchange and criticized the dissolution of Open Pension Funds in 2014. Grzywiński’s Achilles heel is the obligation of three-year experience working at financial institutions required by Polish law. The candidate himself claims he meets this obligation, referring to expert opinions of a renowned law firm of Professor Sołtysiński. Added to that, Grzywiński criticizes the Financial Supervisory Authority for too rigorous requirements with regard to financial market people.

However, the problem may be that neither Dietl nor Grzywiński are managers. The analyst and lawyer-consultant were appointed WSE Board members and seemed to understand its needs. Dietl, with his knowledge of private business and thick network of contacts, and Grzywiński with his ability to listen to those more experienced than him and learn quickly, seem to be the right people to manage the state company.

Challenges abound. Increasing overregulation of the market, deficit of new issuers and outflow of the existing ones, and the predicted end of Open Pension Funds – these are all issues that the Warsaw Stock Exchange and its new president have to face.