UniCredit lender returns to Poland, wants to base its revenues on three pillars

"In our three-year plan, we assume that our revenues will come from three main sources, each accounting for one third of the total. Firstly, revenues from banking as a service (BAaS), secondly, revenues from the large corporate segment, and thirdly, individual customers and small businesses," said Wojciech Sobieraj, CEO of Vodeno and head of the supervisory board of UniCredit NV/SA.

"In our opinion, the driving force behind the development of the entire Polish banking segment, including UniCredit, must be banking for large and medium-sized companies. The banking sector in Poland must grow in order to push through large investments. Any new player with capital who wants to make a name for themselves and invest should be welcome, although competition in the banking sector will certainly increase," he added.

The UniCredit Group is a pan-European universal bank with EUR 880 billion in assets. It has over 15 million customers, including approximately 1 million companies. It boasts a strong position in Italy, Germany, Austria and Central and Eastern Europe, among others.

In 2016, due to its difficult financial situation, the Italian bank decided to sell its shares in listed lender Bank Pekao and withdraw from Poland. Today, it is making its return to the Polish market.

Bank representatives admit that UniCredit's withdrawal from Poland and Turkey was a strategic mistake.

"You cannot build a European bank without a presence in these two markets. As UniCredit Group's CEO Andrea Orcel says, Europe needs banks capable of supporting every industry and the development of our continent so that we can become an economic bloc that can rival the United States and China," said Wojciech Sobieraj.

In March 2025, UniCredit acquired both the technology company Vodeno, which offers banking as a service (BaaS, providing financial services to non-banking companies under their own logo), and the Belgian-registered bank Aion for a total of EUR 1.5 billion. UniCredit is currently planning to leverage the potential of Vodeno's embedded finance platform across the entire group.

According to the chairman of the supervisory board of UniCredit NV/SA, banks in Poland are no longer as innovative as they like to claim, and customers want and expect change. This assumption was the basis for the decision to create a modern bank in Poland that combines the approach typical of fintechs with that of large universal banks.

Currently, UniCredit has 11 branches in nine Polish cities: Warsaw, Gdansk, Szczecin, Bydgoszcz, Lodz, Poznan, Wroclaw, Katowice and Cracow.

"We assume that by the end of 2026, we will open another 29 branches and will have a total of 40, including in the eastern part of the country, in Bialystok, Lublin and Rzeszow. We believe that 40 branches will be the optimal size for a network in the country," said Wojciech Sobieraj.

The Polish branch of UniCredit offers 2,800 local and global investment solutions from 15 markets in its application.

The bank announces the lowest commissions (0.15 percent for the Polish market and 0.03 percent for the foreign market), with a minimum amount of PLN 4.00 (EUR 0.95) per transaction.

The offer applies, among other things, to the purchase of shares of companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Wojciech Sobieraj announced the launch of individual retirement accounts (IKE) and individual retirement protection accounts (IKZE)) in the near future.

He also said that the lender is to have an insurance offer, which will probably be launched in January or February 2026.

"We are looking for a partner who will be our partner not only in Poland, but also in various other markets," Sobieraj added.

Currently, the capital of UniCredit Bank in Belgium, which has a branch in Poland, is EUR 200 million. According to Wojciech Sobieraj, it will be recapitalised with EUR 100 million per quarter or per half-year, depending on the pace of development.

pr/ ao/