Bank Pocztowy SA (BP), is a postal bank which will soon be celebrating its 20th anniversary. It ranks only 25th or so in Poland, which shows that for a long time it did not have good conditions for development. Considering its huge development potential, this position is too low, but the situation may soon change.

We have done a lot over the past three years - often in close cooperation with relevant departments of Polish Post Office – in order to catch up with other organisations operating in the sector. Apart from building a simple and cost-efficient network for physical access to the bank’s services and improving in-house processes, we have offered some of the most modern solutions available on the market, solutions no one has come up with before. I mean the lokaty-online.pl Internet shop and a system supporting the sale of cash loans. The BP is the first bank in Poland to use on such a large scale the certified electronic signature and automatic micro-loan processing when selling the loans through Poland’s most extensive network of over 4,000 outlets. The money is paid out to the clients who have met the relevant requirements within 10 minutes. In this respect, we are able to compete with any bank in Poland and I am sure none of them can beat us. These examples show that, although three years ago we were quite backward compared to other banks, this backwardness has now become a thing of the past.

What we owe to our predecessors is a centralised IT system and guidelines for the postal banking project, that is for the actual presence of the bank at post offices. This has made it possible for us to create a network of 2,000 financial outlets at post offices where Polish Post Office cashiers work for the BP and on its behalf. The BP’s central system is available at these outlets, making it possible to provide basic services to clients. Most Poles need only the simplest banking service and the BP responds to this need. With its centralized operating system, the bank ensures access to cash and client accounts at any place in Poland in real time. This is an important thing. No other bank in Poland has such a network.

We are becoming increasingly visible – of course on a scale which is in keeping with our present potential. We have financial outlets in almost one in two post offices but our services are available at every post office in Poland. Every holder of a BP account can open a deposit account, pay in or withdraw their money at any post office in Poland. Additionally, BP clients can obtain cash loans of PLN500-PLN5,000 and receive the money within 10 minutes at most of the post offices which have no separate BP outlets. No other system in Poland is more universal.

For many years BP has operated mainly as a clearing bank. Today its share in the KIR SA national clearing system exceeds 17%. And if all transactions and records which the BP processes together with the Polish Post Office were taken into account its share in all banking settlements in Poland would reach up to 35%. As a result, clearing is a very important part of the BP’s business model, although retail banking has been gaining in importance, changing the profile of the bank’s operations and the structure of its revenue. Retail banking has been developed particularly intensively over the past three years, especially after an agreement was signed with the Polish Post Office on the implementation of the Detal project. At present, clearing services generate 40% of the bank’s revenue, retail banking almost 40% and corporate banking the rest. In the last group, most of the revenue comes from housing associations, homeowners’ associations and local government units. This is why, apart from intensive lending activity for retail clients, we want to exploit our overliquidity to expand our corporate banking activity by creating very attractive services for small and medium-sized businesses.

It is impossible to build one’s position on the market overnight. People want products which meet their needs and which at the same time do not force them to solve puzzles. We have such products – they feature at the top of many league tables. We have interest-bearing current accounts for “traditionalists.” And one should remember that “traditionalists” represent a majority of the people which we have an opportunity to reach with our products. We have the best product offered in Poland to old-age pensioners – a Nestor account for PLN5. This fee may be returned to the account holder if there is minimum activity on the account. We can even arrange for a holder of this account to have money delivered to his or her home by a postman. This truly is a social-responsibility account. In terms of its availability and the potential it offers, this product is unbeatable. Another top-ranking product is our Plus account. It is intended for “traditionalists” who are a little more active. For PLN10, they receive a full range of financial services available throughout Poland. Of course, the two accounts can be accessed electronically via the Internet and text messages. We also offer the Nowe Konto Oszczędnościowe account for free. The account holders who pay using the account card can have interest on their account raised from 4% to as much as 8% annually. More and more people use this product.

We are a socially responsible bank and as such we are also reaching the “financially excluded” people, as they have been recently called by the European Commission. We reject such a notion and such an approach. There are perhaps people not yet aware that in today’s world they need banking services. They have to be made aware of that. This is a task for such institutions as the BP, institutions which are widely accessible and where clients may find basic services of high quality offered at reasonable prices and according to very transparent rules.

The BP is a bank with sound foundations, a bank which is assessed highly by the supervision authority, is expanding, not afraid of modern solutions, and has already started to set market standards. We are not afraid to introduce the new solutions which other banks would not introduce because their decision-making centres are outside Poland. We have good and improving relations with our shareholders: Polish Post Office and the PKO BP bank. We are an increasingly important part of their business strategies. This, combined with a humble approach to reality and good cooperation with Polish Post Office, is our philosophy for today’s difficult times. The BP is expanding faster than ever and I think we are able to grow even faster.



Piotr Kamiński

President of Bank Pocztowy SA