The past year was a busy one for the KDPW Group which creates and manages a secure, reliable and efficient infrastructure for uninterrupted trading in financial instruments. While many processes run by KDPW and KDPW_CCP remain invisible to the market, they ensure efficient and safe handling of securities. In the past year, the KDPW Group implemented a number of projects to improve the quality of its services.
Importantly to financial market users, the clearing chamber KDPW_CCP started to clear a new type of Exchange Traded Commodities (ETC) available on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2023. The first ETC on physical gold listed on GPW is issued by the European ETF platform HANetf. What is new compared to the products offering exposure to gold available on the market is the full physical collateral and the genuine possibility of getting physical gold from the issuer, corresponding to the value of the ETCs held. The new product offers exposure to responsibly sourced physical gold stored at the UK Royal Mint.
On 20 March 2023, after several years of preparation, the European Central Bank launched the new TARGET system for high-volume clearing in euro, and the KDPW Group is a user of the system. On that day, the first euro-denominated operations were correctly uploaded to and cleared in the Polish component of the system, TARGET-NBP. The new pan-European TARGET system combines the services previously offered by the European Central Bank through Target2 (T2), Target2 Securities (T2S) and Target Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS), largely improving cross-border clearing and settlement processes in Europe.
KDPW is a technology company creating modern IT solutions for the entire capital market. It was also one of the first to engage in the development of solutions based on blockchain, a technology often used by developers of new solutions and services for the financial market. Leveraging its experience, KDPW has partnered with the Polish Financial Supervision Authority in the creation of the DLT Virtual Sandbox which provides extensive opportunities to test new solutions before they are made available to the market. The DLT Virtual Sandbox complements the PSD2 Virtual Sandbox, which has been in place since 2020 to test selected payment services.
In order to improve our communication with the market, KDPW and KDPW_CCP launched brand new websites at the beginning of the year, which are comprehensive and coherent in the presentation of all the necessary information on our services to participants, potential clients and other users to make sure that they can quickly find the information they need.
The drafting of the National Financial Education Strategy was completed in 2023. A KDPW representative participated in the work on the document. The strategy was developed following a review of the financial skills and knowledge of Poles. The long-term goal of the proposed strategy is to equip the people of Poland with the necessary financial competences to help them improve their overall financial resilience and ensure financial well-being.
High market turnover, growing capitalisation and rising indices attracted new individual investors to the market in the past year. According to data received by KDPW from banks and brokerage firms, the number of brokerage accounts amounted to 1,703,000 at the end of November 2023 (the latest data available). This is more than 98,000 more than at the end of 2022.
The upcoming year 2024 will be a special year for the KDPW Group as it will mark the 30th anniversary of the inception of Krajowy Depozyt Papierów Wartościowych, established on 7 November 1994. It will certainly be a time to look back but also look ahead from the 30-year perspective. The Polish capital market is facing a range of challenges. The involvement of the entire market community and decision-makers is required to meet them.
