Theis year, it announced a new long-term strategy and partnership agreement with the UK’s NatWest, part of the RBS Group. The first effect of co-operation between the two institutions is a free money transfer service between accounts in Poland and the UK.
Following on from a good performance in 2005, the majority state-owned PKO BP strengthened its efforts in 2006 with a 22.1% growth in net profits, a healthy 9.7% growth in assets as the largest bank in Poland, and a 14.3% increase in Tier 1 capital. The bank remains the second largest in central Europe with a Tier 1 capital of $2474m at the end of 2006, behind Hungary’s OTP.
PKO BP maintained its leading position in savings-giro accounts with more than six million already opened, 2.3 million customers in electronic banking and strong expansion in payment cards with seven million issued including one million credit cards. The bank also witnessed record growth in the housing market with housing loans up 42% in 2006 to $4.4bn.
According to the growth strategy plan for 2007-12, the bank expects to double its income and net profits and achieve a gross RoE of 30% while maintaining a cost-income ratio of 40%. The bank reduced its cost-income ratio from 62.6% to 59.3% in 2006.
“We received the Bank of the Year in Poland award 2007 at a very special moment for PKO BP, a synonym for banking in Poland. This is a result of several dozen years of PKO BP’s activity,” says president Rafa Juszczak. “However, even our long history is not enough to compete for customers effectively in today’s highly competitive market. That is the reason why PKO has started a process of thorough modernisation, unprecedented in terms of its scale and speed. Our new, aggressive strategy for the years 2007-2012 assumes that, despite ownership transformations and M&As in the financial sector, we will remain the number one bank in Poland in the long term.
“At the moment, we are opening our first branch in the UK and, as the first Polish bank, we want to provide services for the million Poles working in there. That is why winning this prize now is very good – it gives us renewed energy and reinforces our belief that we are going the right way.”
