We are changing, recognizing the impact of innovation on financial services. We marked our digital transformation by revising the bank’s Articles of Association to expand the scope of our operations to technological services. This is the expectation of our clients and investors.
Read moreThe strategy update is our next chapter in the same, good story we have been telling for a decade. With this strategy, we boldly enter into the second century of PKO Bank Polski. We are well-prepared for the challenges set before us by the competitive environment and the legitimate, high expectations of our customers, shareholders and employees.
Zbigniew Jagiełło
CEO of PKO Bank Polski
The PKO Bank Polski Group generated PLN 4.03 billion in net profit in 2019. This is the best result in the entire history of the bank and an excellent milestone to mark the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of our operations. The decisions we made several years ago, focusing on digitization, innovation and technological development, pay off in our stable and repeatable results, market shares and client satisfaction, which is crucial to us.
The highest profit generated over the bank’s 100-year history. Achieved in the environment of high regulatory costs and materialization of legal risks. As in previous years, profits were supported by a very good result on business activites amounting to PLN 14.7 bln that grew mainly due to an improvement in net interest income (which rose by 10.0% y/y to PLN 10.3 bln).
The reinforcement of the capital base (an increase in average equity by 7.9% y/y) together with a 7.8% y/y financial result dynamics translated into stable return on equity (ROE) of 10.0% at the end of 2019, an unchanged level compared with the previous year.
We have increased the effectiveness of our operations by reducing the cost-to-income (C/I) ratio to 41.9% that marks an improvement of 2.3 p.p. y/y due to a higher result on business activities (+10.0% y/y) and smaller increase in operating costs (+4.3% y/y).
An improvement in risk indicators, despite an increase in gross financing to clients by around 3.6% y/y, has been the result of a continued, conservative credit risk management and a close monitoring of the loan portfolio at the Group level.
The number of current accounts of individual customers went up by almost 14% over the past three years, despite a drop in the number of bank’s outlets. According to the new methodology for account classification, bank reports all active current accounts considered to have the potential for further development of the existing relationship with the customer.
We have the largest network of branches and agencies out of all banks in Poland. The vast distribution network of PKO Bank Polski enables access to banking services for all Poles and counteracts their financial exclusion. Our network will gradually evolve into an advisory and digital education centre for customers. Electronic banking is an important supplement to the distribution network of banking products and services.
PKO Bank Polski Group is one of the largest employers in Poland. At the end of 2019, it employed almost 28 thousand people on full-time contracts, of which 85% were the bank’s employees (23.6 thousand FTEs). In our foreign offices in Ukraine, Czech Republic and Germany, we employ almost 2 thousand people, or 7% of the Group’s total employment.
One of the strategic goals of the bank for the years 2016-2020 is to simplify and streamline its processes by minimizing the number of paper documents. The SMARTOP project regarding the digitization of sales and support processes was launched in 2017. Already 51% of orders submitted in the bank’s branches are carried out in paperless format.
In 2019, we adpopted a policy for financing of the carbon-intensive energy sector. Its main objective is a gradual change in the loan portfolio structure towards reducing the exposure to coal-based customers and transactions, and increasing the exposure to green entities and transactions supporting zero-emission or low carbon-intensive energy sources.
The number of women in the bank’s Group is 3x higher than the number of men. There are roles held almost entirely by women – they include sales and customer service roles. Women currently represent 85% of the workforce in the bank’s sales network.
Regular workers make up 87% of the employees of the bank’s Group and 88% of the employees of the bank, the rest are middle and senior managers. Most of the Group’s and the bank’s employees have been employed for more than 10 years.
Our sponsorship activities are aimed at supporting the bank’s image as a trustworthy, socially-engaged, modern and open financial institution. Our objective is to portray the bank as a leader and trend-setter of the financial sector, also in comparison to other institutions having the same business profile. For several years, promoting the physical activity of Poles has been a key element of our sponsorship activities.
IKO, the bank’s mobile application, is the most popular and most transactional application in Poland. According to Retail Banker International, which includes 100 bank applications in its ranking, IKO is the best application in the world. Every half a second our clients make mobile payments, and they already log into IKO 60% more often than using the iPKO online banking website.
So far, they have made 350 million transactions via IKO.
PKO Bank Polski follows the principles of social responsibility and takes into account the impact of its actions on shareholders, suppliers, employees and the general public. These principles pursued by the bank in the non-financial areas of its operations include:
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