Fi-curious?

QFinanse, the first financial advisory service dedicated to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, will soon open for business in Warsaw. The launch is scheduled for the second quarter of 2007.

"At the beginning we plan to kick off with a Warsaw location and shortly afterwards we will develop four or five other, major-city locations," said Artur Orzoł from QFinanse. The company also announced plans to open offices in Poznań, Kraków, Wrocław and the Tri-city.

"Besides our office staff, we will also offer mobile advisors who will be able to reach and meet our clients outside our offices. This offer is especially designed for disabled clients," said Orzoł. "We plan to employ about 70 staff, which will include the mobile advisors."

Orzoł admits that financial advisors in Poland do not tend to discriminate against LGBT groups, but QFinanse will offer its services in an LGBT friendly atmosphere. "We will devote more time to a single client and we will play the role of negotiator between them and a bank," Orzoł explains.

However, Radosław Solan, an analyst from PKO BP, says that companies offering niche products or services usually already exist on developed financial markets, unlike Poland's, and their profiling is used to gain new customers.

"It's a little too early for opening such a company in Poland, as the market is still growing and developing," Solan said.

He added that financial advisory companies would do better to attract mass-market clients as the market in Poland still has a great deal of growth potential. This approach would ensure that a company would grow along with the market.

However, according to QFinanse's market research, the LGBT market in Poland consists of 600,000 potential clients, who have about zł.12 billion in total net income per year.