Standard & Poor's maintain high rating for PKO Bank Polski
2011.05.10
The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has maintained PKO Bank Polski’s high “A-pi” long-term rating for liabilities in the national currency, taking into account the Treasury’s announced reduction of its shareholding in the bank. ...
The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's has maintained PKO Bank Polski’s high “A-pi” long-term rating for liabilities in the national currency, taking into account the Treasury’s announced reduction of its shareholding in the bank.
The rating was based on publicly available information and was not ordered by the bank. In September 2010, Standard & Poor's raised its rating of PKO Bank Polski from “BBBpi” to “A-pi”. Then the important systemic role that PKO Bank Polski plays in the Polish banking sector was taken into account, as well as the State Treasury’s participation in the shareholding of the bank, which results in higher reliability.
According to today's decision by Standard & Poor's, PKO Bank Polski’s credibility will not be reduced even in the case of a reduction in the stake of the main shareholder, which could occur in subsequent years, although not below 25%. In the opinion of the agency it will not limit the Treasury’s control over strategic decisions of the bank.
In April 2011 an Extraordinary General Meeting of PKO Bank Polski decided to change the Bank’s Statutes. This concerned mainly issues relating to the reduction of shareholder voting rights, so that no shareholder could command more than 10 percent of the total number of votes.
PKO Bank Polski is now rated by four rating agencies: Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's, Capital Intelligence and Fitch. Last year, Fitch maintained its high rating for the Bank. Recently, Moody's Investors Service maintained a high rating of the EMTN Eurobond issue programme. Unsecured debt issued under the program received a rating of A2, subordinated debt A3, and short-term debt Prime-1.
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PKO Bank Polski is the undisputed leader of the Polish banking sector in terms of financial performance. Net income for the first quarter amounted to 851 million PLN. With over 25-percent market share the Bank also holds the leading position in sales of PLN mortgages, offering not only traditional mortgages, but also preferential mortgages with state subsidies. PKO Bank Polski is awarded in many prestigious rankings. The Bank’s mortgage offer, in terms of adapting to untypical customer expectations, has been recognized as the best on the market by financial comparison engine Comperia.pl. The Bank is also praised for its flexibility to offer these loans, which may be granted to cover a variety of purposes, as well as for being the best savings and investment bank. As many as five products of PKO Bank Polski: mortgages, cash loans, accounts, deposits and credit cards, have been awarded by the magazine Reader's Digest with "Product of the Year 2010" certificates as the most often and most frequently chosen products by customers. The Bank has won the "Golden Banker" award as the best in the loan market and the loan market for firms, has also won the contest "Entrepreneur-Friendly Bank", holds the certificate "Customer-Friendly Company" and is the best commercial bank according to Warsaw Business Journal. PKO Bank Polski’s innovative solutions for corporate banking were awarded in the Europrodukt competition. The bank received three statues in the last edition of the competition in the product category – payroll and consolidated account and escrow account. The cutting edge technology introduced by the PKO Bank Polski has also been recognised by Gazeta Bankowa, which awarded the bank the title “IT Banking Leader of Financial Institutions 2010”. According to analysis by the research firm MillwardBrown SMG/KRC, among the surveyed financial institutions PKO Bank Polski enjoys the highest confidence – three quarters of respondents trust its financial stability. PKO Bank Polski is also the strongest bank in the country in terms of image, as shown by its position as leader in the "Top Brand" ranking compiled by Press magazine. It is also the most valuable brand on the Polish banking market. Specialists from The Banker magazine estimated the value of its brand at one and a half billion USD and in Rzeczpospolita "Polish Brands 2010" ranking its value was set at PLN 3.6 billion.
