PKO Bank Polski - the most valuable Polish company in 2019

PKO Bank Polski ended 2019 once again as the most valuable company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. During the last session of the year, investors valued it at PLN 43.1 billion. At the present scale of operations, results achieved and the scale of technological projects, PKO Bank Polski is well ahead of its domestic competitors. In the three quarters of 2019, it made PLN 3.3 billion of profit - more than any other entity in the financial sector; after three quarters, it had nearly PLN 342 billion of assets and rendered services on behalf of 10.9 million individual customers. In 2019, the bank paid its shareholders PLN 1.66 billion in dividends form profit for 2018, while PLN 1.67 billion of profit has remained undistributed and may be paid as a dividend in 2020.

This year, which marked the 100th anniversary of establishment of the Bank, was also special thanks to the new strategy. Two years in advance, PKO Bank Polski  achieved the financial objectives defined in the 2016 – 2020 strategy and updated these. The 2020 – 2022 strategy “PKO Banking Platform” includes new, ambitious financial objectives and a plan for continuation of the digital transformation. In the coming years, the Bank will make even more use of modern technologies, transforming itself effectively into PKO Banking Platform. It will also strengthen its customer relations through further acute development of remote channels, taking advantage of advanced data analytics and accurate personalization of range of products and services offered. The bank network will gradually evolve into a financial consulting and education center.

In 2019, PKO Bank Polski received the “Bank of the Year in Poland” award for the fifth time. The justification for this award was activity of the bank associated with the ongoing digital transformation, such as development of the IKO mobile app, use of the blockchain technology, as well as development of the National Cloud. Emphasis was also put on innovative technological solutions implemented as a part of cooperation with start-ups, as well as a change in the working model of the organization towards use of agile project management methodologies. This prestigious award in the financial sector confirms that the digital transformation strategy of the bank has been recognized not only domestically, but also abroad. At the same time, it serves as a reference point for other organizations, searching for growth sources in the dynamically changing world.

IKO, the mobile app of PKO Bank Polski, is the most popular and the most transaction-oriented application on the Polish market. Every half a second, the Bank’s customers make online payments using their mobile devices, and the frequency of logging into the application is 60 percent higher in comparison with the iPKO internet banking service. In 2019, IKO exceeded the record-breaking value of 4 million active applications. High popularity and the best user scores made IKO the winner in the ranking of the British Retail Banker International for the second time in a row, confirming the application’s status as the best in the world. Once again, IKO has outstripped apps of the biggest global banks, such as JP Morgan Chase, Barclays or Bank of America. The mobile app of PKO Bank Polski is constantly under development. Apart from the number of users and transactions, the range of functions available through the application is growing as well. Works are in progress on providing customers with the "Talk to IKO” function, allowing them to manage the application using voice.

The National Cloud Operator, a company of PKO Bank Polski and the Polish Development Fund, launched its operational activity in 2019. The Company has continued to acquire partners and clients through a successive development of the range of products and services offered. The NCO implements the multi-cloud concept: ultimately, it wants to offer services of global technology leaders, as well as its own services, which are now being developed intensively, using the infrastructure built and managed by the company. As a part of this strategy, in September 2019, the NCO announced the beginning of its strategic partnership with Google. The cooperation is aimed at supporting Polish companies in implementing and using the potential offered by advanced computational cloud technologies in business. The Google Cloud Platform products will complement the product range of the National Cloud Operator, and Google will open in Warsaw the so-called Google Cloud region, which is a technical infrastructure and software hub, dedicated to clients from Poland and Central-Eastern Europe. Simultaneously with initiation of NCO’s cooperation with subsequent partners and clients, PKO Bank Polski has extended the scope of services outsourced from the company.

In 2019, the PKO Bank Polski Capital Group continued to engage in activity aimed at improving the condition of the environment. The Bank approved the credit policy for the high-emission sector. As a part of this policy, it plans to implement a gradual change in the structure of the loan portfolio through successive limiting of its engagement in transactions involving high-emission energy. The Bank has also improved its position in the ESG rankings, which assess the efforts made with regard to environmental protection, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance. Significant activity of the Bank in this regard includes issue of Green Mortgage Bonds by PKO Bank Hipoteczny, which is the first mortgage bank in Poland to join the elite group of global issuers of securities of this kind. PKO Bank Polski, together with PKO Bank Hipoteczny, have also launched a project aimed at development of standardized pan-European mortgage loans for financing of apartments and houses implementing energy-saving solutions.

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