The Polish government has recently revealed its plans to exclude the Central Bank (NBP) from the group of entities being entitled to hold shares in the NDS capital.
As a result NBP may be forced to sell their shares to private investors.
In accordance with the regulations being currently in force, NBP is among those institutions that can be NDSs shareholders. In fact, NBP takes advantage of this right and holds 33,3% stake in the depositorys capital.
During the legislation process aiming at adjusting the local regulations to MIFID Directive the government is going to propose an amendment resulting in exclusion of the central bank from the group of potential shareholders.
According to the governments preliminary proposals, NBP will be given one year to adjust to the new regulations by selling their stake in NDS to other eligible investors. It is expected that the potential buyers can be banks, brokerage houses, and the stock exchange, all of them closely co-operating with the central depository.
It is still preliminary proposal that will be discussed this week by the Council of Ministers Committee and later by the government, and may be, to some extent, modified as the NBP has already expressed their reservations to the project. However, if approved by the parliament, it would lead to a significant change in the ownership structure of the NDS.
The new NDSs shareholders are likely to be market participants strongly involved in the clearing and settlement activity. Being shareholders they will have a stronger influence on the NDS activity.