The Polish market, although very dynamic in growth, is still very young of age (20 years).

Thanks to the evolution from a ‘100% banking-based system’ to a mixed ‘banking- and market-based system,’ Poland’s capital market is characterized by the growing strength of institutional investors (pension funds, investment funds), elaborate institutional infrastructure, as well as high disclosure requirements. At the present time, there are 384 listed companies (domestic and foreign) on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). At the end of November 2009, the total capitalization of domestic companies listed on WSE accounted for €102.6 billion. In contrast to other EEC countries, Poland’s economy is experiencing a solid growth, benefiting from significant share of domestic demand on GDP that sends positive signs to investors as strong economies help create efficient capital markets.

A survey conducted in November 2008 on 17 Polish Investment Fund Companies (TFI) with assets under management worth €10 billion showed that Polish investors know about SRI and implement basic elements of extra-financial analysis of companies. This is mostly done in-house, without any specific structure or policy.

Corporate governance is the first and foremost factor of the ESG umbrella for Polish investors. Therefore, companies’ reports and rankings on corporate governance are of the greatest interest, as opposed to sustainability reports. Most Polish CSR and sustainability reports of listed companies are still considered as a media exercise (lot of social campaigns, tree-planting, philanthropy, and employee volunteering) rather than a desire to address the most challenging sustainability issues for the business itself as well as the sector as a whole.

Some facts about the Polish market (as of 31/12/2009):

• SRI Market size: €0.2 billion for Core SRI, €0.9 billion for Broad SRI
• Influential actors: institutional investors
• Leading Strategies: simple screening, norms- and values-based exclusion
• SIF (yes/no): no

For more information on SRI in Poland, download the Polish section of Eurosif's European SRI Study 2010.