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mBank SAmBank lender loses appeal in court regarding CHF loans; shares down by 3.4 pct
Listed lender group mBank, the Polish unit of Commerzbank, lost its appeal against a ruling that had annulled the loan contracts of a group of clients with CHF mortgages, Business Insider portal has reported. According to mBank, almost half of clients that was part of the class action have already settled with lender. mBank has faced a 3.4 percent drop in its shares following the verdict.
As BI daily pointed out, this is the first final judgment on a CHF loans class action.
The Court of Appeal in Lodz, presided over by Judge Jolanta Jachowicz, in the ruling of July 4, 2025 (I ACa 202/25), declared more than a thousand contracts invalid due to unfair contractual terms contained therein.
The case has been dragging on for nearly 10 years. Initially, there were more than 1,700 people involved, but since case law has changed in favour of borrowers, as seen in the numerous individual cases pending against banks across Poland, and since they have started offering settlements, quite a few of those involved in the group proceedings have entered into these voluntary agreements.
"First of all, the court granted mBank's motion and excluded from the proceedings the persons who concluded settlements with the bank after the first instance verdict of 2024 (about 140 persons) and discontinued the proceedings against them. This means that so far, a total of almost half of the participants in these proceedings have opted for an amicable resolution of the dispute and have chosen settlements," the head of the disputed loans department at mBank Marcin Wojtachnio stressed in the statement sent to Business Insider.
"The verdict in this case is determinative, i.e. each of the participants of the group must sue the bank individually in order to have the agreement annulled," he added.
Wojtachnio pointed out that the bank will await a written justification of the judgment. After analyses, it will decide on possible further legal steps as the bank has the possibility of filing a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court, although - given the case law on CHF loans - it would be difficult for it to count on success in this highest instance.
"Regardless, the bank intends to continue to offer settlements to all customers, including those affected by the group proceedings. We believe that settlements are the quickest and easiest way to end disputes related to franking credits," he emphasised.
As of end-March, mBank booked PLN 272.9 million (EUR 64.2 mln) of provisions for class action dispute lost on Friday. Moreover, the lender faced 12,791 individual lawsuits. The bank has set aside PLN 5.7 billion (EUR 1.34 bln) in total for CHF-mortgage risk.
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