PKO BANK POLSKI CONFIRMS HIGH LEVEL OF ITS CAPITAL ADEQUACY RATIO

The EBA adopted on December 2011 a Recommendation on the creation and supervisory oversight of temporary capital buffers to restore market confidence. The Recommendation called on National Authorities to require banks included in the sample to strengthen their capital positions by building up an exceptional and temporary buffer such that their Core Tier 1 capital ratio reaches a level of 9% by the end of June 2012 after application of buffer on the sovereign debt exposures to reflect their market prices as at the end of September 2011.

Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski SA (PKO Bank Polski) notes the announcements made today by the European Banking Authority and Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) regarding the final assessment of the capital exercise and fulfilment of the EBA December Recommendation.

According to the report, the exercise has determined that PKO Bank Polski`s Core Tier 1 ratio amounted to 12 % as at 30 June 2012 and significantly exceeds the 9% level specified by EBA. The Bank does not have a capital shortfall and the decrease of creditworthiness of some countries – members of the European Union does not have any direct influence on Bank`s financial performance.

The initial sample of the Capital Exercise included 71 banks, however, the 6 Greek banks as well as 4 other banks (Öesterreichische Volksbank AG, Dexia, WestLB AG and Bankia) were monitored individually regarding their specific condition. Therefore, the final assessment published today refers to 61 European banks, including PKO Bank Polski that was the only Polish bank assesed in this excercise. 

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PKO Bank Polski is a Polish banking sector leader. Its consolidated net profit for the first half of 2012 totalled PLN1.95 billion. The bank has been regularly recognised in prestigious industry rankings.  It received the Bank of the Year in Poland honour award of The Banker international monthly.  Its financial results and comprehensive modernisation effort met with recognition. The Polish Accountancy and Tax Institute honoured the PKO Bank Polski Annual Report for the Year 2010 with the Grand Prize in The Best Annual Report competition, in the Banks and Financial Institutions category. The Bank was recognised, among other things, for its balance sheet total growth rate and its overall market activity. Additionally, Gazeta Bankowa named the bank the Highest Effectiveness entity in its category. PKO Bank Polski once again ranked the highest in ARC Market and Opinion’s survey of bank call-centre help-lines. PKO Bank Polski is the country’s strongest image bank in Poland. It is also the highest value brand in the Polish banking market. Experts of The Banker magazine assessed its value at USD1.5 billion while the Polish Brands 2011 ranking of the Rzeczpospolita daily valued it at PLN3.75 billion. According to Newsweek’s 100 Most Valuable Firms ranking, it is also the highest value domestic bank. Philanthropic activities of PKO Bank Polski met with recognition of the Academy for the Development of Philanthropy in Poland, which granted the Bank and its Inteligo Financial Services the Benefactor of the Year 2010 statuette, and of the Polish Donors Forum, which granted the Bank the Special Award for its longstanding and consistent support of public interest causes. The Bank is counted among the best banking sector employers; so indicate the key league tables complied based on opinion pools held among students. Its high position in this respect has been further validated through surveys ran by the Universum Global international researchers and the AIESEC association among students of the country’s best universities.