The Warszawska Gielda Towarowa Spolka Akcyjna (WGT) was organized as a member owned exchange in July 1995. Individuals and firms from both the private and public sector founded the Exchange. In October of 2000, the WGT was fully privatized when the Foundation for the Establishment of a Grain and Foodstuffs Exchange sold all of its' majority equity stake to individuals from the private sector. Presently, the WGT is the only privately owned regulated exchange operating in Poland.
The spot commodity market on the WGT is presently the largest in Europe. In August of 2001, the WGT introduced the "Internetowa Gielda Towarowa" (IGT), an electronic trading platform for the cash commodity market. The IGT is the largest B2B trading platform in Poland. Since its introduction, the nominal value of commodities traded on the IGT exceeds 3,500,000,000 PLN.
Commodity and financial futures began trading at the WGT in January of 1999. The futures market on the WGT trades in an open-outcry environment. Commodity futures contracts currently listed for trading on the WGT include Milling Wheat futures, Feed Wheat futures, and Live Hog futures. Financial futures listed for trading on the WGT include futures and options on futures on six currency pairs (USD/PLN, EUR/PLN, CHF/PLN, EUR/USD, EUR/HUF, EUR/CZK), futures on interest rate products (One-Month and Three-Month WIBOR Deposits), and futures on Republic of Poland government debt (Two, Five and Ten Year RP Treasury Note Futures).
The WGT owns and operates its own clearinghouse. The WGT Clearing House is wholly owned by the WGT Membership. The WGT Clearing House was designed to conform to standards commonly accepted by the international Futures Industry. All transactions entered into on the WGT futures market are cleared through the WGT Clearing House. The WGT Clearing House is the only clearing entity in Poland that acts as a central counter-party to, and is a guarantor of all transactions entered into on a domestic exchange.