Amid all this organisational change, the bank still managed to stay focused on its customers. The details of 1.5 million customers were transferred to the Pekao IT systems within three days of the completed merger on 30 November 2007, and commission and fee income showed especially strong growth of 12.7% in 2007, even in difficult financial market conditions that emerged in the second half of the year. In this context, profits rose by more than 20%, to about PZt2.2bn (€583.5m).
“The award is recognition of the tremendous effort of all our people in making Bank Pekao a leading financial institution in Poland and the region over the past two years, as well as a challenge to fulfil the expectations placed in us,” says CEO Jan Krzysztof Bielecki. “I also treat this as a recognition of the Polish financial sector, which in these nervous times proves its stability and its unique position in Europe.
“I believe that the next few years will offer Poland a unique chance to leverage on the good economic position in Europe. We at Pekao also feel the responsibility to play a vital role in the stabilisation of the financial sector domestically and in the region.”
