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Banking sector overview | Banking today and tomorrow | August 2024

WIBOR goes to EU court. Bankers warn of disaster

The first WIBOR case has reached the CJEU. Although the banking sector is trying to keep a cool head, in an interview with money.pl, its representatives warn of an economic catastrophe. The financial impact would be an order of magnitude greater than that of the CHF mortgage cases.

Source: Money.pl

WIBOR-indexed mortgages could go the way of CHF mortgages. Key ruling for millions of borrowers

Consumer lawyers have got their way. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will answer questions about the legality of variable-rate PLN loan agreements. It seems that law firms want a repeat of the situation with CHF mortgages, where, among other things, the CJEU’s favourable rulings for consumers paved the way for the mass cancellation of such loan agreements.

Source: Business Insider

Cebrus buys VeloBank. KNF raises no objections

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) has found no grounds to object to the planned direct acquisition of shares in VeloBank by a Cerberus Group company, the KNF said in a press release on Thursday.

Source: Bankier.pl

Major acquisition of Polish business. Buyer is European financial giant

Milan-based European financial giant UniCredit has signed a binding agreement to acquire Aion Bank SA/NV and Vodeno for approximately EUR 370 million. Combining features of a fintech and a traditional bank, Aion Bank is the brainchild of Wojciech Sobieraj, the founder of Alior Bank. Vodeno is also Sobieraj’s creation, and is a cloud platform through which banks can offer various services.

Source: Interia

Taiwanese bank enters Lithuania. ‘A springboard to Europe.’

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission has approved an application by the Bank of Taiwan, the country’s largest state-owned bank, to set up operations in Lithuania, Lithuanian media reported on Wednesday. The Taiwanese bank still has to apply to the Bank of Lithuania for permission.

Source: Rzeczpospolita

Carbon calculator wins hearts of banks. ESG reaches small businesses

Three banks have already introduced various carbon footprint calculators and the free tools are proving popular with customers. Smaller companies are implementing ESG in their businesses to attract new customers and retain existing ones.

Source: Rzeczpospolita

Banks in Poland are serving more and more foreigners. Most new customers come from Ukraine

Banks in Poland already serve more than 2.3 million foreigners, according to data collected by Bankier.pl at the end of March 2024. This is almost 200,000 more than in the same period last year. According to our estimates, Ukrainians are the most numerous group, numbering perhaps even more than 1.5 million.

Source: Bankier.pl

BIK: 40 % of customers have used deferred payments more than 20 times

The average amount financed through deferred payments is PLN 183 and almost 60% of customers are women.

So far, 2.3 million Poles have used deferred payments. At the end of June 2024, 1.28 million people had an active BNPL (buy now, pay later) payment, i.e. in the interest-free period. For 158,000 BNPL customers, this is their only credit commitment (i.e. customers with no other loans or credits), according to data just published by the Credit Information Bureau (BIK).  BIK, which summarised the first half of the year on the credit market, shed some light on the dynamically developing deferred payment market in Poland. However, it should be stressed that this is not a complete picture of the market – the data comes from 12 companies reporting to BIK, mainly loan companies.

Source: Cashless.pl

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See also

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


Contact us:

Tomasz Leśko

Tomasz Leśko

Attorney at Law, Partner, Co-Head of Disputes of Financial Institutions, Head of the Krakow Office

+48 22 326 3400

t.lesko@kochanski.pl

Weronika Magdziak-Śliwa

Weronika Magdziak-Śliwa

Advocate, Partner, Co-Head of Disputes of Financial Institutions

+48 882 680 971

w.magdziak@kochanski.pl