Polish banking sector
The largest bank in Poland is PKO BP. In terms of total assets, PKO BP was the leader reaching over 418 billion zloty in 2021. During this period, the bank also enjoyed great interest from customers. It had over 11.1 million commercial and retail clients, almost twice as much as Bank Pekao and Santander BP. Moreover, year after year, more people decide to open a personal bank account. In 2020, Alior Bank achieved the highest annual growth of newly established personal accounts, increasing by almost half a million bank accounts. Overall, the whole banking industry reached a net financial profit of 8.8 billion zloty in 2021.Digital payments
In 2021, PKO BP and Inteligo had over 9.47 million customers with access to internet banking. However, the number of active internet banking users per month did not exceed five million in any banks except PKO BP and Inteligo. More and more Poles are becoming active users of mobile banking applications. The number of active users increased by nearly 17 percent in a year, reaching over 16.5 million users in the fourth quarter of 2021. Active online banking consumers made over six bank transfers on average in the fourth quarter of 2021.In 2020, nearly 44 million payment cards were issued in Poland. The popularity of payment cards, cashless payments at POS terminals, and card payments executed via the Internet increased in recent years. Additionally, over 96 percent of cashless transactions were contactless in the second quarter of 2021. Poles usually use payment cards, phones, and wearable devices for contactless transactions.
