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Banking Sector Overview | Banking today and tomorrow | April 2024

10 April 2024 | Banking today and tomorrow, Knowledge, News

Disputed WIBOR mortgages. Financial Ombudsman leaves both sides dissatisfied

The rise in interest rates has resulted in some mortgage borrowers paying up to twice as much. As a result, attempts are being made to challenge PLN variable rate mortgages based on WIBOR, and the Financial Ombudsman’s so-called ‘significant view’ on such loans has caused widespread controversy. Law firms representing borrowers are trying to win clients on the basis of this opinion, but bank representatives remain calm. (…)

— The Financial Ombudsman’s opinion, despite the media coverage it has received, does not represent a revolution in this debate. However, it has undoubtedly raised the temperature of the dispute unnecessarily – stated Tomasz Leśko, Attorney at Law at Kochański & Partners.

Source: Business Insider

European banks protest against imposed ESG rules

Last week, the European Banking Federation (EBF) said that European banks will not be able to compete with their US rivals if regulators impose ESG rules that US banks are free to ignore.

Source: Bank.pl

VeloBank sold for more than a billion zlotys to American fund

The US fund Cerberus today signed a preliminary agreement to buy 100% of the shares in VeloBank, the Bank Guarantee Fund announced. VeloBank is the successor to Getin Noble Bank, which was forcibly restructured.

Source: Rzeczpospolita

Banks will find it easier to get rid of bad loans

Banks will now find it easier to ditch loan agreements with debtors who have got into financial difficulties. This is the main objective of the draft law on loan servicers and loan purchasers published by the Ministry of Finance.

Source: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna

The banks have started to scrutinise Poles. What is going on?

Last year, banks and entrepreneurs turned their attention to the BIG InfoMonitor Debtor Register, checking up to 8.15 million people. Interestingly, some of these people were checked not once but several times.

Source: WP

Banks ‘too big to fail’. Experts urge: More vigilance needed

Experts at the International Monetary Fund are urging bank supervisors not to let banks off the hook and to be more vigilant. Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election could add to a litany of misfortunes by making the world’s financial system less safe and ordinary people once again shouldering the bankruptcies of financial giants, as they were forced to do a decade and a half ago.

Source: Interia

Ministry of Finance abandons integration of cash registers with terminals. The relevant provisions will be included in the National e-Invoicing System Act.

The fact that the Ministry of Finance was leaning towards abandoning the controversial innovation has been known since last autumn, when it was announced in a statement to the media by MoF officials. It now appears that operators of payment terminals will not be forced to integrate their machines with fiscal cash registers. This, at least, is what has emerged from a document published by the Ministry of Finance on changes to the National e-Invoicing System (KSeF).

Source: Cashless.pl

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Banking today and tomorrow | An overview of the banking sector | March 2024

Latest Knowledge

Dual-use items: how broad will the CJEU’s definition be?

A training aircraft designed for civilian purposes can also qualify as a military item. That’s a conclusion emerging from the Advocate General’s Opinion in Case C-538/25 (Flugzeugherstellerin) before the Court of Justice of the European Union. What does this mean for companies exporting goods from the EU?

Workplace harassment and discrimination: new regulations for employers

The Sejm has passed an amendment to the Labour Code concerning workplace harassment and discrimination. The changes introduce a broader definition of the concept itself, new forms of harassment, clearer definitions of what constitutes, for example, sexual harassment, and new rules governing the handling of such cases, including the reversal of the burden of proof, higher compensation awards, and the jurisdiction of district courts. The provisions will enter into force on 5 November 2026. We examine what will change and how much time remains to adapt company documents, policies, and the organisation as a whole.

ESG Roadmap. How to identify which regulations apply to your business and build a strategy

As we know, ESG in business is a roadmap made up of numerous obligations arising from different regulatory frameworks. That is why the right question is not “how do I meet all the requirements?” but rather “which of them apply to my business?”. This is a crucial distinction. We explain how to correctly diagnose your regulatory profile and build an effective ESG strategy – one that actually works and gives you a competitive edge.

Announcement of Income Tax Reform

On 19 August, during a press conference, the Prime Minister announced a package of tax changes planned for next year. According to the announcement, the reform is intended, on the one hand, to ease the burden on the middle class and, on the other, to shift a greater fiscal burden onto the wealthiest individuals and the largest companies. We take a look at the proposals included in the announced package and explain what they might mean for taxpayers.

Family foundations and the tax authorities: what draft bill UD447 proposes and why this is not the end of the troubles

Family foundations were intended to provide entrepreneurs with a stable framework for intergenerational wealth management. Yet not even four years have passed since the first such foundations were established, and the rules governing their taxation are set to be changed once again. This is because the scale of interest and the practical problems uncovered have overwhelmed the drafters of the legislation, as best illustrated by the figures – 927 applications for individual tax rulings and 77 opinions issued from the Head of the National Revenue Administration. This does not, however, mean that family foundations are being used on a massive scale for aggressive tax optimisation. A significant proportion of the queries concerned simply how to correctly apply the complex regulations.

Banking today and tomorrow | Financial sector overview | August 2026

Poland’s banking sector has reacted with concern to recent remarks by Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, who announced plans to put forward a proposal for a further increase in CIT levied on banks. The Minister’s reasoning, however, rests on a flawed conflation of the sector’s liquidity with its profitability, revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of how the banking sector operates and how its financial health is assessed. What is more, it feeds into a worrying trend of replacing substantive debate with simplistic, populist messaging which may be politically appealing but is not underpinned by either facts or economic analysis.

NIS2 and the National Cybersecurity System Act in transport: what you need to do before October 2026

The amended Act on the National Cybersecurity System (UKSC) has been in force since 3 April 2026. For transport sector undertakings, this means a specific compliance timeline, including an obligation to register with the National Cybersecurity System (KSC) registry by 3 October 2026. Failure to do so may result in substantial financial penalties, coupled with the risk of personal liability for senior management. Not every undertaking, however, automatically falls within the scope of the new regime. Read on to find out whether your organisation is affected and what you need to do before the deadline for preparation.

Family foundations: the government has done the maths and presented the bill

Three years. That’s how long we’ve been waiting for what the Council of Ministers had seen in the data from the outset – and has now disclosed in its review of the Family Foundation Act. The document not only diagnoses the problems, but also previews substantial changes to rules that founders and their advisers treated as settled and stable. And therein lies a problem that goes far beyond tax matters. If the rules of the game are changed while the game is being played, there can be neither planning stability nor trust in the law. It is no coincidence that one of the greatest concerns among entrepreneurs considering setting up a foundation is not the level of taxation, but the stability of the legal framework – which today is once again being called into question.