06/05/23

Largest banks from around the world paid a visit to Poland

• PKO International Banking Seminar is the largest and best-known meeting of foreign banks in Central and Eastern Europe.
• Through relationships with more than 1,300 banks worldwide, PKO Bank Polski is today the national leader in foreign settlements and the first choice for financial institutions that want to perform payment operations in Poland.
• PKO BP currently runs about 230 accounts for foreign banks serving 50 percent of the interbank market.
• The bank's constantly evolving settlement infrastructure reflects in the quality, speed and lower cost of foreign transactions for PKO Bank Polski's customers.

Invited by PKO Bank Polski, 80 representatives of banks from around the world visited Poland this year. The PKO International Banking Seminar was attended by representatives of leading banks from Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. PKO Bank Polski enjoys a leading position in international settlements in Poland, and meetings such as this one are an opportunity to strengthen existing relations and consolidate Poland's image as a reliable and trustworthy partner in international banking.

This is a fourth PKO International Banking Seminar . We have been organizing this conference since 2015 and it has significantly strengthened our position in the international market through the development of correspondent banking. Today, we are Poland’s leader in foreign settlements and the first choice for banks that want to perform payment operations in our country. This was demonstrated, among other things, during the pandemic and war in Ukraine, when foreign banks sought a safe haven and found it with PKO Bank Polski, which resulted in increased business activity with foreign partners”, 
-says Andrzej Kopyrski, Vice President of the Management Board of PKO Bank Polski.

PKO International Banking Seminar is the largest meeting of representatives of foreign banks in Central and Eastern Europe. This year there were 80 participants representing leading banks from around the world.

Our meetings enjoy unflagging interest. For many banks, cooperation with PKO Bank Polski is a gateway to the Polish economy and the performance of financial transactions with entities operating here. We currently clear transactions with some 1,300 institutions in 23 currencies and maintain 230 accounts for banks from Europe, America, Asia, Australia and Africa, which accounts for 50 percent of the interbank market in Poland”, 
-explains Radosław Ptaszek, director of the Foreign and Institutional Banking Department at PKO Bank Polski.

The extensive international payment infrastructure of PKO Bank Polski means benefits for customers, both institutional and retail: the route and time of transfers are shortened and third-party bank fees are reduced.

Using only one financial institution, a customer can, for example, send money to New Zealand or pay an invoice in a given currency, exchanging the zloty immediately for New Zealand dollars, without the need for an intermediate conversion into, for example, euros or dollars. The ability to handle foreign settlements directly provides PKO Bank Polski with a significant competitive advantage in the market.

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PKO Bank Polski is the undisputed leader of the Polish banking sector, with the value of its assets amounting to PLN 444 billion. In first quater of 2023, the bank generated PLN 1.5 billion in net profit. The company serves 11.7 million customers. It is the basic supplier of financial services for all customer segments, achieving the highest shares in the market of deposits, loans and in the market of private investment funds. Thanks to the development of digital tools, including the IKO application, which is actively used by 7.4 million customers, PKO Bank Polski is the most mobile bank in Poland.

Kamil Piechowski