On March 13, 2009 in Warsaw Belarusbank and Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) signed the bilateral Cooperation Agreement. On behalf of WSE the Agreement was signed by Members of the Board Lidia Adamska and Beata Yarosh and on behalf of Belarusbank - by Deputy Chairperson of the Board Gennady Gospodarik.
At the solemn ceremony Belarusbank was awarded the certificate which confirms Belarusbank's status of the WSE's IPO-partner. This event was widely covered in the mass media by Polish television, radio as well as by popular in Poland and abroad periodicals. After the signing ceremony, there was a briefing with representatives of mass media. At the briefing the parties characterized conclusion of such Agreement as an important stage in development of mutual cooperation between the bank and the WSE in the sphere of attracting Belarusian enterprise which are interested in placing their securities on the WSE.
The choice of the WSE is not a random one. Nowadays WSE is a leading stock exchange in Central and Eastern Europe and in 2008 it is ranked second in the world (after London Stock Exchange) by number of realized IPOs.
Signing of the Agreement with the WSE is a consecutive step of Belarusbank in development of cooperation with international financial institutions. In October 2008, Belarusbank signed Memorandum of Understanding with Deutsche Börse AG which the operates the largest German securities exchange - Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Thus, Belarusbank has access to the capital markets of both Western Europe (through the Frankfurt Stock Exchange) and Central and Eastern Europe (through the Warsaw Stock Exchange).
Warsaw Stock Exchange established in April 1991. Nowadays 372 companies are listed at WSE (347 Polish companies, 25 foreign companies from Holland, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Ukraine, the Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, USA, Spain, Estonia etc.). The capitalization of these companies is 385 bln. of zloty or about 110 bln. US dollars.
WSE is active in development of interaction with European countries, including Belarus. In particular, on February 23, 2009 Warsaw Stock Exchange signed Memorandum of Understanding with Belarusian Currency and Stock Exchange. The purpose of this Memorandum is establishment of favorable investment climate and development of cooperation between financial markets of two countries.