Banking sector overview | Banking today and tomorrow | November 2024

14 November 2024 | Banking today and tomorrow, Knowledge, News

Ministry of Justice has drafted a CHF mortgage bill

The Ministry of Justice has drafted a bill that will ultimately improve the resolution of conflicts between CHF mortgage borrowers and banks. The next important step will be to discuss the new legislation within the government. A new law is being shaped to speed up and simplify court proceedings for thousands of Poles involved in disputes with banks over Swiss franc mortgages. The bill, which has just passed through the Codification Committee, is expected to be put on the government’s work list soon.

Source: Business Insider

Banks are set to settle with CHF mortgage borrowers. Polish Bank Association estimates costs for coming years

The amount of settlements in 2025-2026 is estimated at PLN 4.5 billion, the Ministry of Finance said, citing data from the Polish Bank Association (ZBP).

Source: Bankier.pl

Loans now easier to get. National Bank of Poland report shows change in banks’ criteria

Between July and September, banks relaxed their criteria for granting housing loans, consumer loans and long-term loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, according to a new NBP report. What will happen in this respect in the last quarter of 2024?

Source: Money.pl

Banks implementing the law by including WIBOR in mortgage loan agreements

“The courts have indicated that the introduction of WIBOR as a benchmark in mortgage loan agreements is an expression of the banks’ compliance with their legal obligations,” said dr Tadeusz Białek, President of the Polish Bank Association.

Source: bank.pl

Banks will find it easier to deal with non-performing loans

On Tuesday, 29^th October the government adopted a bill that will bring Polish law into line with the EU Directive on credit servicers and credit purchasers. The idea is to allow banks to better deal with non-performing loans on their balance sheets. The new rules are also intended to reduce the risk of an accumulation of non-performing loans in the future.

Source: prawo.pl

Cybersecure Wallet 2024: Poles in cyberspace – active but often unsure and careless

The fifth edition of the ‘Cybersecure Wallet’ report, developed by the Warsaw Institute of Banking (WIB) Foundation under the auspices of the Polish Bank Association (ZBP), has been published. According to it, Poles are most likely to use mobile applications for banking (57%), consistently perceive banks as leaders in cybersecurity (54%), but only 34% of respondents believe that the responsibility for the security of electronic transactions lies with all parties involved in the process, i.e. not only banks, but also customers themselves.

Source: Polish Bank Association

Why are Polish banks issuing so much debt?

By mid-October, the largest lenders had sold more bonds than in the whole of 2023. They mostly choose to issue debt on the European market, and there are several reasons for such high activity.

Source: XYZ.pl

Banks will have to offer instant and free euro transfers

From April 2025, banks will face penalties if they do not offer 24/7 instant payments (in less than 10 seconds) in EU currency, according to provisions proposed in the draft amendment to the law on the Bank Guarantee Fund, the deposit guarantee scheme and forced restructuring (No: UC65).

Source: Gazeta Prawna

Next phase of the introduction of the digital euro. ECB issues invites for testing

The European Central Bank is inviting small and large merchants, banks, other payment service providers, fintech companies, financial institutions, research institutes, technical experts and universities to take part in the next phase of testing the digital euro. This time the focus is on conditional payments.

Source: Fintek.pl

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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.