Bank Millennium announces strategy for 2025-28; wants to resume dividend payments from 2027

"The bank plans to achieve these goals through a series of business initiatives supported by further digitisation and the implementation of technological innovations, improved operational efficiency and enhanced customer experience, all while maintaining cost discipline," Millennium wrote in the document.

"The bank aims to achieve a return on capital of around 18 percent in 2028 while maintaining cost discipline (cost-to-income ratio of around 37 percent) and a low level of non-performing loans below 4 percent. The reinstatement of the dividend is planned from 2027, subject to a favourable regulatory environment," it added.

The lender reported that in the corporate banking segment, the goal is to double the loan portfolio (to more than PLN 25 billion or EUR 5.8 bln) and increase the number of customers to more than 50,000.

Millennium wants to achieve these goals thanks to an improved service and support model for business customers, the development of the offer of credit products (e.g. investment loans, leasing, factoring), and the streamlining of the process of applying for and obtaining loans.

In the retail banking segment, the bank plans to increase the number of customers to 3.7 million and to be the bank of first choice for 70 percent of them. The goals will be achieved by maintaining its leading position in terms of customer service quality (strengthening its position in the top three banks in the NPS rankings) and by further digitalisation and implementation of new technological solutions (e.g. advanced hyper-personalisation of the offer).

"Bank Millennium enters a new strategic cycle with a strong position in retail banking. It serves more than 3 million active customers, has a profitable business model and a stable capital position. It intends to further leverage the competitive advantages it has developed, such as its proven customer acquisition model, high service quality and advanced digital technologies, to accelerate growth," the lender wrote in the new strategy.

It was pointed out that Bank Millennium's macroeconomic office's forecasts for the Polish economy for 2024-2028 are optimistic, with stable GDP growth, low unemployment, rising disposable income and interest rates expected to stabilise at around 3.5 percent.

The banking sector is characterised by strong capital ratios and high liquidity. During the strategic period, the bank expects high market volume growth in retail banking and corporate banking, particularly in corporate lending.

As part of its new strategy, the bank intends to strengthen its position in the medium and large enterprises segment. The aim is to increase its customer base from around 9,000 to 17,000 by, among other things, offering them tailored credit products (leasing, factoring and investment loans).

"Moreover, the bank intends to increase the number of corporate customers for whom it is the main bank. It will achieve this by further improving the customer experience (maintaining its position among the top three banks in the NPS rankings), digitalisation and the use of advanced data analytics in decision-making processes. In addition, it will introduce an improved sales and service model and simplify the process of applying for and obtaining loans," it wrote.

"The lender also intends to support the growth of small businesses more effectively and increase the number of small businesses in its customer portfolio from 21,000 to more than 33,000, providing them with more flexible and tailored solutions and changing their service model," it added.

Millennium indicated that the new growth strategy is supported by five key elements. These are, among others, investing in new technologies, improving the operating model and efficiency, or compliance and risk management.

"Leveraging the foundations built in the current strategy, we plan to further achieve our sustainability goals, such as climate neutrality by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050, community engagement, and to support the green transformation at our customers by providing PLN 5 billion of financing for sustainable projects," the bank wrote.

alk/ ao/