Brokerage houses are recovering as turnover increases, but for how long?

Brokerage houses are recovering slowly from the 1994 stockmarket crisis. However, brokerage houses will face fierce competition in the future, when Poland joins the European Union (EU) as larger foreign companies will be able to not only operate in Poland, through subsidiaries, but also directly from their head offices. Seventy percent of brokerage houses have reported increased revenue for this year, with an average growth rate of 33.5% over the same period last year. CDM Pekao S.A. (CDM) has recorded the largest growth rate at 19.7%, and also had the highest turnover from customer deposits with 279,3000 customers. Brokerage house revenues are linked to their participation in public offerings. In 1999, Dom Investycyjny BRE Bank participated in six public offerings, the most noteworthy being the oil company Polska Koncern Naftowy (PKN) Orlen. This year has been especially good so far, with the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) index breaking its record 7 times. Revenue for brokerage houses for the first five months of this year total zl. 1.4 billion, which is over 80% more than in previous years. (Rzeczpospolita, page B6) M.M.