Banking sector overview | Banking today and tomorrow | December 2025

5 December 2025 | Banking today and tomorrow, Knowledge, News

President in favour of raising CIT for banks

On Thursday evening, the President’s Office announced that the President had signed an amendment to the Corporate Income Tax Act and the Act on Tax on Certain Financial Institutions. The CIT rate for banks, currently at 19%, will increase to 30% in 2026, 26% in 2027, and then to 23% from 2028 onwards.

Source: Prawo.pl

Higher CIT for banks is bad news for customers and the economy

On Thursday, 27 November, the President signed a bill amending the Corporate Income Tax Act and the Act on Tax on Certain Financial Institutions. The bill imposes a significantly higher CIT burden on the banking sector. “Unfortunately, we consider the President’s decision to be a regrettable one. This is all the more surprising given that the act is unconstitutional,” said Dr Tadeusz Białek, President of the Polish Bank Association.

Source: Związek Banków Polskich, ZBP – ustawa CIT

Bankers want the balance theory to be included in the special CHF Mortgage Act

There has been apparent calm surrounding the CHF Mortgage Act for several weeks now, as the Sejm has been busy working on the budget and has not had much time to deal with the draft prepared by the Ministry of Justice. However, bankers have just submitted their opinion on the draft, explicitly requesting that Polish courts be required to apply the balance theory. This is also a matter of suspending legislative work in anticipation of future rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union that are expected to be more favourable to banks.

Source: Prawo.pl

CJEU: Important ruling for borrowers. Banks cannot charge customers court costs

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that consumers cannot be charged the costs of legal proceedings initiated by a bank to recover payments under an invalidated CHF mortgage loan agreement. This case was referred to the CJEU by the Regional Court in Warsaw.

Source: Bankier.pl

The European Commission’s new digital package provides an opportunity to accelerate innovation, including in banking

On 20 November 2025, the European Commission announced a ‘digital omnibus’ package on data, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. This is one of the most comprehensive regulatory initiatives in recent years, aimed at unlocking innovation and streamlining EU regulations. Although the changes are horizontal, they may be of great importance, especially in the financial sector, where data processing and analysis are particularly crucial. This is thanks to the GDPR’s increased flexibility and the introduction of practical rules for the use of artificial intelligence, as Piotr Gałązka explains.

Source: Bank.pl

Poles are going for a record. Sudden revival in loans

After picking up in Q2 of 2025, the loan market has continued to grow. From July to September, banks in Poland granted 64,800 housing loans, totalling PLN 29.2 billion. This represents increases of 41.2% and 51%, respectively, compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the AMRON-SARFiN report. Overall in 2025, banks are expected to grant approximately 225,000 such loans.

Source: Money.pl

Another bank in Poland to be taken over? A surprising move on the stock exchange

The Polish banking sector is heating up again in terms of shareholding changes. Following the takeover of VeloBank by Cerberus, and with UniCredit and Erste also entering the market, investors on the Warsaw Stock Exchange are anticipating another potential transaction. The share price of one of the banks has recently risen sharply, although this is not a typical takeover play, and fundamental factors are also important.

Source: Business Insider

Incorrect transfer, correct account number, black hole. Does the bank have to verify the details?

Every transfer order form has fields for entering the payee’s details. However, they might as well not be there, being irrelevant to the execution of the order. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court in a ruling on payment fraud.

Source: Bankier.pl

Banks increasingly willing to finance armaments in Europe

Banks are increasingly viewing defence as a sector offering high and long-term profitability, supported by steadily growing public spending, writes Witold Gadomski. According to the Defence24.com portal, European governments are willing to accept private financing of armaments due to overburdened budgets. Start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises, whose activities are largely based on costly research and development, are the worst affected by the funding gap. A study by the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) estimates this funding gap to be at least EUR 3–4 billion. Similar challenges exist in expanding production capacity, where funding consistently fails to keep pace with the growing demand for military equipment.

Source: Bank.pl

Questions? Find out how we support banks and financial institutions.

Latest Knowledge

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.

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.

What the new swiss franc act means for banks

We now have a new Act on Special Measures for the Adjudication of Cases Concerning Loan Agreements Denominated in or Indexed to the Swiss Franc. The provisions come into force 14 days after publication. So now is a good time to look at what lies ahead and what banks should be doing today.

Don’t miss the deadline for fulfilling your transfer pricing obligations

Transfer pricing has for many years been one of the main areas of focus for tax authorities. In practice, this means that transactions between related parties are subject to heightened scrutiny, and the associated documentation obligations are among those most frequently audited.

New draft Pay Transparency Act – what has changed since December 2025?

A second version of the draft act on strengthening the application of the right to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women has now been published. It refines procedures and deadlines and introduces a new supervisory body. We have already discussed the changes affecting the recruitment stage and the three pillars of the forthcoming pay transparency framework, noting that Poland will miss the EU transposition deadline of 7 June 2026. Now, we take a closer look at the further changes, new developments and risks that have emerged in the latest, April version of the draft.

Payment Services Regulation (PSR) – between consumer protection and due diligence

The draft Payment Services Regulation (PSR) is one of the most significant elements of the reform of the EU legal framework for payment services. Its principal aim is to enhance the security of cashless transactions and to reduce the scale of financial fraud, in particular that arising from the growth of digital channels. At the same time, the new rules are intended to introduce a liability model that will not result in risk being transferred entirely to financial institutions, whilst retaining an important role for independent due diligence on the part of the user.

Energy deregulation – key changes for businesses and energy consumers

The President has now signed the Energy Deregulation Act (UDER92). The new provisions cover both the relationships between energy undertakings and consumers, and matters relating to investment, district heating, and the administrative obligations of energy market participants. The Act introduces changes in the areas of billing, communication with consumers, grid connection, and the operations of undertakings in the energy and district heating sectors. We set out the key points to note.

Banking sector overview | Banking today and tomorrow | July 2026

Under the draft legislation, banks will be required to offer existing borrowers a switch from WIBOR-based to POLSTR-based interest rates, a mechanism intended to speed up the voluntary transition of financial instruments to the new benchmark. The banking sector has responded positively to the proposal, according to Tadeusz Białek, President of the Polish Bank Association.