The 18th AFM Annual Conference dedicated to futures and commodity markets will take place on 23 - 24 April in Krakow. The event is organised by AFM (the Association of Futures Markets), an organisation which gathers exchanges offering commodity-linked derivative instruments.

Each year the event is held in a different country and is addressed to the representatives of exchanges, clearing houses, financial institutions and general business community. The Polish Power Exchange, as an active AFM member, is the host and co-organiser of this year's edition.

The honorary patrons of the 2015 AFM Conference are: the Energy Regulatory Office and the Warsaw Stock Exchange, the patrons are: the Chamber of Brokerage Houses, the Polish Association of Brokers and Investment Advisors, the Chamber of Fund and Asset Management and the Polish Bank Association, and the media patrons are: Parkiet Gazeta Gieldy and Rzeczpospolita dailies, Reuters News Agency and FOW Futures and Options, and the Polish Radio is the exclusive public media patron.

The conference will be attended by senior executives from commodity and derivative exchanges, which will provide the unique opportunity this year in Poland for a direct exchange of experience and discussion about the market future in such a distinguished group. During meetings, the participants will debate about various issues related to the functioning and security of the global financial market.

The main themes will include questions related to the global derivatives market, including issues related to clearing services, futures market in Poland and the region and the methods of boosting market liquidity in different regions of the world.

Representatives of derivative instrument market for the first time in Poland Building on very close cooperation between the Polish Power Exchange and the Association, the AFM Board has entrusted the organisation of this year's conference to POLPX. Thus, Poland will host this event for the first time. It will also be the first major international conference dedicated to derivative instruments to be held in Poland.

'We are glad that our this year's conference will bring important financial market personages to Central and Eastern Europe, also those from most remote corners of the world. Among other reasons, we chose Poland because of the position of the Polish Power Exchange in the region. POLPX is one of the most dynamically growing exchanges in Europe. I am convinced that the experience of POLPX and the entire European commodity futures markets will inspire a meaningful and interesting discussion among the conference participants' said Megain Widjaja, Chairman of Association of Futures Markets.

'We are honoured that we can be the host of this event. For the Polish Power Exchange it is a unique moment as we are about to launch a derivatives market and futures contracts for electricity price indices still this year. The opportunity to take part in a debate with institutions which already run derivative instruments markets will be a valuable experience for us and our participants' - said Ireneusz Lazor, President of the Polish Power Exchange.

Financial Market at POLPX The financial market is an import area in the focus of POLPX. According to the decision of the Ministry of Finance of 23 February, POLPX is going to launch the trade in commodity derivative instruments on the Financial Instruments Market (FIM) by the end of this year. Electricity futures will be the first instrument to be introduced to trading. The pertinent topics will also be discussed during the AFM conference.