Securities Commission discusses issues related to high-risk companies

The Securities and Stock Exchange Commission (KPWiG) wants to create a separate higher risk floor on the Warsaw stock Exchange (WSE) where companies in danger of receivership would be listed. According to Dariusz Witkowski, in charge of the public companies and finance department in KPWiG, another solution would be to name the companies with higher investor risk. At present around 30 companies in danger of receivership are traded publicly on the WSE. Under the new regulations, companies to be listed would not have to comply with the stringent bourse regulations concerning reports on their standing. "Because of the scale of the problem we would like to introduce several changes concerning the way these companies report their financial condition," explained Witkowski. The Commission, which is currently investigating ten cases of breaching the report regulations, has already closed 27 cases fining the guilty ones a total of zl. 1.45 million. In comparison, in 2001 only 14 companies were fined for having irregularities in their financial reports. According to Jacek Socha, the Commission's chairman, in the first half of 2003 major amendments to the Public Trade Bill are expected, but further changes may still be necessary later. (Parkiet, p. 4; Prawo i Gospodarka, pp. 1, 15) J.K.