Pekao SA: Inside Poland’s biggest bank transformation

Pekao SA is a sleeping giant of Polish banking. Euromoney speaks to new chief executive Cezary Stypulkowski about how he is using lessons from his leadership of mBank to revive Pekao. Growing linkage with rival Alior Bank – due to new leadership at their common state owner PZU – is just one part of the story.

In Washington DC in October, Cezary Stypulkowski reminisced with Ana Botín about how they once both featured in Euromoney’s list of the top 50 young financial leaders. Thirty years on, Stypulkowski remains a central figure in Poland’s banking sector and Botín is firmly in charge of Banco Santander, Spain’s global banking champion.

But Stypulkowski has just embarked on a new and characteristically ambitious direction, in line with his enduring hunger for banking-sector disruption.

He has been best known, during the past 15 years, as chief executive of Commerzbank subsidiary mBank, Poland’s second biggest privately owned lender after Santander Bank Polska.

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