CEE's best digital bank 2020: ING Bank Slaski

Over the past decade Poland’s banks have consistently been at the head of the pack in Europe in terms of digitalization.

The early leader in the field was mBank, which pioneered internet banking before the financial crisis. From 2008, the Commerzbank subsidiary faced stiff competition from digital challenger Alior Bank, until it was bought five years ago by Polish public-sector insurance firm PZU.

More recently, the running has been taken up by state-controlled market leader PKO BP and smaller private-sector rival ING Bank Slaski.

PKO BP was one of the main drivers behind Blik, the local payments system launched in February 2015 by Poland’s six biggest banks and was also the first in the market to harness the power of blockchain, launching document verification via distributed-ledger technology in late 2018.

When it comes to using technology to add value for both clients and bank, however, the standout is ING Bank Slaski, the winner of this year’s award for CEE’s best bank for digital.

Over the last two years, the Dutch subsidiary has taken the lead in key areas including e-commerce, remote verification and open banking.