⚠ Clearing Concentrates Real Financial RiskModerate threat

The clearing house is a moat and a concentration of risk in the same structure. By standing as the counterparty to every energy trade, IRGiT guarantees the market — which means that if a large participant defaults in a period of extreme price moves, the clearing house is on the hook to make the market whole, drawing on the collateral and default funds it manages. In a violently volatile energy market, that is not a trivial risk: the very price spikes that boost trading volumes also raise the odds and the potential size of a member default.

Clearing houses are built precisely to withstand this — with margining, default funds, and layered safeguards — and are heavily regulated for the purpose. But the tail risk is real, and it is systemic: a clearing failure would be far more damaging than any ordinary business setback, both financially and to the trust the whole franchise depends on. Owning the post-trade plumbing captures more value in normal times; it also means GPW, through IRGiT, holds the market's counterparty risk in the abnormal ones. The moat and the hazard are the same wall — and both stand inside a group earning 204,7m zł a year¹.