Banking sector overview | Banking today and tomorrow | June 2025

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

Banks unable to finance transition projects

“The Polish banking sector is unable to take on the challenges of financing huge transition projects,” said Tadeusz Białek, President of the Polish Bank Association. He added that even if they joined forces in a consortium, Polish banks would not be able to finance a project larger than PLN 53 billion.

Source: Biznes Alert, Banki nie są w stanie finansować projektów transformacyjnych

EFC 2025: President of the KNF discusses the Polish financial market in the face of global challenges

Geopolitical turbulence will have a significant impact on the economy, including the Polish financial market, which, however, is well prepared for these global challenges. ‘The financial market is stable, banks are well capitalised, and the capital market has high development potential,’ said Jacek Jastrzębski, President of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), during the 15^th edition of the European Financial Congress in Sopot.

Source: Bank.pl, EKF 2025: przewodniczący KNF nt. polskiego rynku finansowego wobec globalnych wyzwań

PZU and Bank Pekao planning to merge. A market giant is set to be formed

Poland’s largest insurer and second-largest bank have signed a memorandum of cooperation to merge. The resulting entity will be one of the largest financial institutions in Europe.

Source: Parkiet.pl, PZU i Bank Pekao chcą się połączyć. Powstanie rynkowy gigant – parkiet.com

VeloBank is acquiring the retail arm of Citi Handlowy. The banks have signed an agreement

VeloBank has signed a conditional agreement to acquire Citi Handlowy’s retail arm. According to an announcement published by Bank Handlowy, the transaction will be closed once the required regulatory approvals have been received and operational readiness is achieved, which is expected mid-2026.

Source: Interia Biznes, https://biznes.interia.pl/gospodarka/news-velobank-kupuje-czesc-detaliczna-citi-handlowego-umowa-miedz,nId,7973252#utm_source=paste&utm_medium=paste&utm_campaign=chrome

Blik plans foreign expansion; it wants to invite CEE banks to invest

Blik is set on foreign expansion. To this end, it is developing an equity strategy and intends to invite banks from the CEE region to invest, said Szymon Midera, CEO of PKO BP, speaking to journalists backstage at the European Financial Congress in Sopot.

“The Blik Supervisory Board has approved the company’s goal of conducting extensive foreign expansion. We see a chance that, in the next few years, Blik will reach similar volumes in the wider CEE region as it does currently in Poland. This expansion is necessary because it is difficult to increase market share in Poland in the long term. This is what the work on Blik’s equity strategy entails,” said Szymon Midera, PKO BP’s CEO.

Source: Strefa Inwestorów, Blik planuje ekspansję zagraniczną; chce zaprosić banki z CEE do inwestycji

The Ministry of Finance is not planning to introduce taxes on excess profits. Banks are safe

According to a response to a parliamentary interpellation, the Ministry of Finance has ruled out investigating the introduction of a tax on banks’ excess profits. The ministry stresses that the banking sector already provides significant support to the state budget through existing tax solutions. The Ministry of Finance has published a position paper noting that current analytical efforts are focused on improving the efficiency of Poland’s tax systems. The paper explains that banks have been subject to a so-called bank tax for years, which aims to increase their contribution to state spending. “In 2024, revenues of more than PLN 6 billion have been declared from this tax” the ministry reported.

Source: Business Insider, Ministerstwo finansów: nie będzie podatku od nadmiarowych zysków banków

How do Poles rate their banks? In this respect, we differ from the rest of Europe

Over the past two years, the percentage of Poles willing to recommend their bank to friends has increased by 8 percentage points, reaching 55%. Unlike in other European countries, we also prefer physical banks to digital ones.

Source: Gazeta Prawna, Jak Polacy oceniają swoje banki? Pod tym względem wyróżniamy się na tle Europy – GazetaPrawna.pl

The first bank in Poland introduces payment rings

Bank Pekao is introducing payment rings to the Polish market. This is the first solution of its kind in Poland, as emphasised by Puls Biznesu. The newspaper adds that in the mid-1990s, the bank paved the way by offering its customers credit cards, which were a complete novelty in Poland at the time.

Source: Money.pl, Pierwszy bank w Polsce wprowadza obrączki płatnicze – Money.pl

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Latest Knowledge

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.

“Withdraw from contract here” – what next for the new button in online shops, on trading platforms and in mobile apps?

From 19 June, national legislation was to require businesses in the European Union entering into distance contracts with consumers via an online interface to provide consumers with the option to withdraw from the contract via a dedicated function/button. However, due to Poland’s delay in transposing Directive 2023/2673, which requires the use of such a button, this obligation has been postponed in our country. We look at what remote contract withdrawal entails and which transactions the new feature will apply to.

Municipal master plans – new deadline, same old challenges

On 11 June 2026, the President signed into law a bill extending the deadline for municipalities to adopt their master plans (plany ogólne). The key deadline for adopting master plans was moved from 30 June to 31 August 2026. We examine the reasons behind this change and consider what the absence of a master plan might mean for potential investors and their future projects.

Contact us:

Tomasz Leśko

Attorney-at-law / Partner / Disputes of Financial Institutions

+48 22 326 3400

t.lesko@kochanski.pl