Poland to see higher demand for financing, but domestic banks offer is hampered by tax - CEOs

2025 brought an increase in loans in the banking sector and this positive trend should continue in 2026, CEO of listed lender Bank Handlowy Elzbieta Czetwertynska pointed out.

"There will be various reasons for this - economic growth will help us; secondly, we are counting on greater international investment; and thirdly, there are more and more Polish companies that are investing and thinking about international expansion, as well as international companies that continue to invest in Poland," she said.

"EU funds and, of course, lower interest rates will help us," Czetwertynska added, assessing that 2026 will be a good year, although the competition is to be strong on the market.

There is potential for double-digit growth in lending in Poland over the next 3-5 years, but there are obstacles in the form of the banking tax and regulatory challenges regarding mortgages, Bank Millennium's CEO João Brás Jorge assessed.

"I believe that growth will come from large companies and large projects, and such projects are also attractive to banks that are not present in Poland. If a bank that is not present in Poland and does not pay a banking tax wants to play hardball on the Polish market, we may not be able to compete on price, as we pay the banking tax," said the CEO of BNP Paribas BP Przemyslaw Gdanski.

A situation may arise where a lot more loans are pumped into the economy and this dynamic will be positive, but it will not be reflected in Polish banks at all, he added.

The CEO of Poland's second largest lender by assets Pekao Cezary Stypulkowski also mentioned the negative impact of the banking tax in the context of the attractiveness of loan offers.

"We are not feeling it yet, but it will probably materialise in the near future that external financing will simply be more attractive," he added.

Listed lender Santander BP's CEO Michal Gajewski drew attention to the current pricing policies of some banks.

"There are banks that have a 'tough' private owner and require a return on capital, and if we see initial pricing that does not cover the costs of the bank tax, then these are things that a private owner will never agree to," Gajewski said.

The CEO of Poland's largest lender by assets PKO BP Szymon Midera underlined the need to extend the fixed interest rate period in loan agreements to 8-10 years from the current five years.

"This will allow us to stabilise our legal relationship with customers," he assessed, also pointing out the need to raise awareness and educate customers about interest rate risk and changes in property valuation.

seb/ ao/ tom/