Best bank: ING Slaski
Prime minister Donald Tusk’s defeat of the former ruling party PiS in elections last October brought hope for a less strained relationship between Poland and the EU. It also brought hope for more favourable policies towards banks, after the PiS government’s mortgage holidays and bank taxes.
The change of government, furthermore, has spurred governance changes in state-owned companies, which grew in importance under the former government, including in banking.
State-owned PKO BP, Poland’s biggest bank, has struggled to maintain stability in its leadership since the departure of long-standing chief executive Zbigniew Jagiello in 2021. In February 2024, Dariusz Szwed became the fourth of Jagiello’s successors to step down. The subsequent naming of a new CEO, Szymon Midera, was accompanied by news of a wider overhaul of the management board.
In some bankers’ opinions, these changes underline the complexities of state-ownership and the relative freedom from government influence enjoyed by private banks – of which the biggest in Poland are (in order of total assets) entities owned by Banco Santander, ING, and Commerzbank.
On the other hand, the private banks in Poland, especially BNP Bank Polska, Commerz-owned mBank and Bank Millennium, have also suffered heavily from adverse court rulings concerning Swiss franc mortgages – as well as from the mortgage holidays and bank taxes.
Of the largest privately controlled firms, ING Slaski saw an encouraging return to financial form in 2023, with net profit increasing by 159% to Zl4.4 billion ($1.1 billion). Adjusted return on equity rose to 22.9%, while the cost-to-income ratio fell to 40.7%. Growth of customers in both retail and corporate banking accompanied growth in loans and deposits.
In 2023, ING Slaski either reached or moved close to many of chief executive Brunon Bartkiewicz’s ambitious strategic targets, including the number of primary-bank clients, and the number of clients served per employee in the back-office division. In addition, it improved on targeted measures to do with non-financial and compliance risk, and the percentage of applications that it has migrated to the cloud.
Best investment bank: Trigon
International banks inevitably capture a large share of international debt issuance from Poland, notably the sovereign and large commercial banks. But Trigon remains a national success story in investment banking as a purely Polish and private-sector player. It has a large local team that includes one of the country’s most extensive equity research capabilities.
This year Trigon detailed six inbound and outbound M&A deals as well as 14 equity capital market transactions, as equity issuance slowly returned to health. The firm also points to nine leveraged finance and debt capital market roles.
Among the deals that it considers most notable was a role as adviser and tender-offer agent to betting and gaming company Entain on the preparation and execution of a Zl3.8 billion public tender offer for Polish sports betting company STS Holding.
Trigon, in addition, was joint bookrunner on the Zl505 million secondary public offer of footwear firm CCC, the largest transaction of its kind in Poland in 2023. It was also sole global coordinator and bookrunner on the Zl134 million capital increase and placement of stock in gaming company People Can Fly for Korean game producer and publisher Krafton.
On the debt side, it was sole financial adviser to Cyfrowy Polsat, the country’s largest media and telecommunications group and a longstanding client, on senior facilities worth Zl10.6 billion. And it was global coordinator and sole offering agent to Cyfrowy Polsat on an Zl820 million 6.5-year sustainability-linked bond.
Other debt-financing work at Trigon includes acting as sole financial adviser to consumer-goods wholesale retailer Eurocash on senior financing facilities worth Zl1 billion, among many other deals.
Best digital bank: PKO Bank Polski
PKO Bank Polski launched a value-added services platform last year that leverages application programming interface-based technology and microservices architecture. This has improved the way the bank integrates new services from external providers.
The lender also introduced PKO Pay Later, a deferred payment service that had approximately 175,000 active users who had carried out nearly 1.9 million transactions, totalling Zl260.4 million ($66.3 million) by the end of 2023.
It has also rolled out a digital mortgage service, which incorporates new calculators on its website to help customers estimate instalments and assess their creditworthiness.
PKO Bank Polski hosted Poland’s first virtual job fair in the metaverse last year. This event attracted over 600 attendees and initiated more than 30 recruitment processes. It received extensive media coverage, reaching an audience of 3.7 million people worldwide.
Best bank for SMEs: Banco Santander
Banco Santander has launched its Smart Loans programme in Poland and introduced digital sales channels for its Business Express loan. It has extended the tenor for these products to up to 96 months.
The bank has started selling loans through partner outlets, a move designed to offer faster access to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises. Applications exceeding the prelimit are forwarded to the bank branch.
Santander has also given SME customers access to its BLIK instant transaction service, through which they can make mobile transfers, ATM withdrawals and payments instantly. Over a span of six months, the bank facilitated 1.3 million BLIK transactions for business customers, worth Zl500 million ($127 million).
Best bank for ESG: ING Slaski
ING Slaski focused on retail clients’ sustainability goals in 2023, while also being involved in landmark sustainable financings.
The bank introduced the Future Account, through which clients can donate to a range of sustainable projects, such as a biocentric garden, urban greenery pocket forest and micro-reserves for rare bird species. The account also financed buildings with lower energy requirements equivalent to the client’s savings, for a monthly fee of Zl20 ($5).
The bank supported electromobility. Its My Electric Car subsidy programme facilitated the leasing of 461 electric cars with a total value Zl95.4 million (8.8% higher than in 2022).
ING Slaski acted as the global banking coordinator and environmental, social and governance (ESG) junior coordinator on a sustainability-linked financing for the Polsat Plus Group, for Zl8.25 billion. It also worked as ESG coordinator with Baltic Power to finance the construction of Poland’s first offshore wind farm. The project has a capacity of up to 1.2 gigawatts and a total budget of around €4.73 billion.
Best bank for corporates: Citi Handlowy
Citi Handlowy played an important role for its corporate clients in 2023. With clients less interested in loans in a period of weaker investment activity and expected rate cuts, the bank was instrumental in currency hedging transactions and providing solutions for increasing capital and issuing debt. As a result of the Citi Handlowy’s focus on supporting the development of the new economy companies, the volume of payment transactions for these clients increased by 17% in 2023.
In the first quarter of 2023, Citi Handlowy’s brokerage and Citi acted as global coordinators in the issue of new shares by footwear company CCC. As a result of the transaction, the company increased its capital by Zl505 million ($128.5 million). Citi Handlowy was also part of a consortium of banks providing Zl1.57 billion in financing to Emitel. The financing included a term loan, an investment loan and a revolving credit.
Finally, the bank also participated in four bond issues for the European Investment Bank for a total of Zl1.3 billion, including sustainable development goals-linked bonds and the first issue of 20-year bonds.
