Record-breaking quarter with recurring results

 “The Polish economy grows dynamically, with PKO Bank Polski’s profits growing alongside. In the second quarter, the bank’s group achieved the highest financial result in its entire history. It amounted to PLN 1.22 billion and was 30% higher than in the previous year and again clearly the best in the entire Polish banking sector. Such a good result was due to efficient business activities which are additionally supported by the technological transformation effects of the bank. As a result, the generated profit is not only record-breaking, but—most importantly—it recurs,” said Zbigniew Jagiełło, President of the Management Board of PKO Bank Polski.

 High profit growth

In the second quarter of 2019, the net profit of the bank group amounted to PLN 1.22 billion and was by over 30% higher than in the previous year. In the entire first half of the year, it exceeded PLN 2 billion. Again, this is definitely the best result in the entire Polish banking sector. Despite high regulatory costs, the group has significantly improved its—already high—profit growth. As in the previous quarters, a very good result on business activities was a contributing factor. In the first half of the year, it amounted to more than PLN 7.2 billion and increased mainly due to further improvement of the interest result (increase by 11% YoY to PLN 5 billion).

 Dynamic growth of the business scale

PKO Bank Polski continues to grow dynamically. Once again, it broke its record in terms of the amount of the assets already amounting to PLN 329 billion. Financing for the group’s customers increased to more than PLN 246 billion, and the amount of savings for customers managed by the group was over PLN 290 billion. PKO Bank Polski remains an undisputed leader of the Polish banking sector with the highest share both in the credit market and the savings market.

 Investors appreciate the bank’s excellent standing

Record-breaking profits and steadily high cost discipline have translated in the first half of the year into an increase in profitability measured by the return on equity ratio, which already amounts to 10.7% and quickly gets close to the level of 11% anticipated at the end of 2019. High cost efficiency allowed to reduce the cost to income ratio (C/I) to 43.1 (42.7 after one-offs). At the same time, due to prudent risk management and favourable economic environment, the bank significantly reduced its cost of risk to the level of 0.55%.

The company’s excellent standing allowed its shareholders to decide on dividend payment of PLN 1.66 billion from the 2018 profit, which will take place on 14 August. The investors also decided not to distribute half of the 2018 profit, which, along with the bank’s compliance with the criteria for the payment of half of the 2019 profit, provides greater flexibility in the development of the dividend in the next year. The bank’s excellent standing is appreciated by investors. PKO Bank Polski is the most valuable company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and in June, after a wave of increases in its share price, the company’s capitalization exceeded the market valuation of Deutsche Bank—the largest bank in Germany.

In the second quarter of this year, the financing granted to business entities by PKO Bank Polski exceeded PLN 100 billion. Thus, the group confirmed that it is the largest corporate and investment bank in Poland. The Bank provides services to more than 15 thousand corporate customers and nearly one million minor businesses. The advantage of the corporate banking segment’s offer is the possibility to create comprehensive solutions based on various products of the bank and subsidiaries of the group (factoring, leasing), which correspond to different needs of businesses. Leasing offer is an example here. PKO Leasing (excluding PCM) sales in the first half of 2019 amounted to PLN 5 billion and was 14% higher than in the corresponding period of the previous year. The company achieved an excellent sales result despite the fact that the entire leasing market in the first half of the year decreased by 0.6% YoY. PKO Leasing also acquired PCM—one of the leaders of the long-term rental market, which will extend the Group’s offer. 

PKO Bank Polski continues to maintain the leading position in the mobile banking in Poland, with a 25% market share. At the end of the second quarter, the bank’s customers had a total of 3.6 million active applications, and the number of transactions executed in IKO reached nearly 220 million at that time. In the two largest app stores, customers gave IKO nearly 400 thousand ratings, with the average score of 4.8 stars out of 5 possible. Its high popularity and top ratings from users gave IKO another win in the British Retail Banker International rating, which confirmed that the bank’s application is the best in the world. IKO again was ahead of the applications offered by the largest global banks, such as JP Morgan Chase, Barclays or Bank of America. 

In recent months, the application has been expanded with new functions: mobile authorisation, the option to buy urban transport tickets, the credit card as a source of money for BLIK transactions and a convenient standing order for charity purposes. The Bank is working on the “Talk to IKO” project, which will allow to voice control the application, and also other added services in the future. 

PKO Bank Polski continues to implement further digital services. It launched, among other things, the e-Paragon service which is available in the electronic banking service after making transactions with debit payment cards of PKO Bank Polski at selected fuel stations of PKN ORLEN. This implementation is an outcome of the cooperation between KIR and PKO Bank Polski, PKN ORLEN and eService. The Bank also launched mojeID, a remote identity confirmation service. The mojeID service may be used by the customers of PKO Bank Polski and PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny. MojeID facilitates access to online services for PGNiG customers by using digital identity confirmed by PKO Bank Polski. The function for creating the Trusted Profile [Polish: Profil Zaufany] via the electronic banking systems of PKO Bank Polski remains very popular. The service has already been used by 670 thousand customers, and the bank’s share in the creation of Trusted Profiles in the entire banking market amounts to 26%. 

The bank also launches further digital services for companies and enterprises. Since August, small and medium-sized enterprises can use the e-Windykacja collection tool. The tool developed by the Vindicat startup enables businesses to monitor payments on their own and to effectively recover amounts due from unpaid invoices. E-Windykacja, following e-Prawnik, e-Księgowość, e-Sklep and the business assistant, is a solution which creates a comprehensive ecosystem of additional services for businesses.

The Group actively participates in the developing market of Employee Capital Plans [Polish: Pracownicze Plany Kapitałowe, PPK]. The Group’s participation goes beyond the provision of a mere offer and includes also technological solutions supporting the management of the whole market. PPKs offered by PKO TFI are appreciated for strong personal and technical support during implementations, provision of post-sale service network and many years of experience in managing life-cycle funds. PKO Finat, a company from the bank’s group, specialising in the provision of technological solutions for the financial sector, was selected by the Polish Development Fund [Polish: Polski Fundusz Rozwoju] to create a PPK recording system, which was launched on 1 July this year and will ultimately handle the data of 11.5 million employees.

In the first half of 2019, Operator Chmury Krajowej, a company belonging to the Bank’s Group, commenced its operations based on its own infrastructure. PKO Bank Polski became the first customer of the company. Currently, the bank uses the services of Chmura Krajowa in the area of outsourcing the test environment based on the IaaS model (Infrastructure as a Service). The use of cloud-based services will enable the bank to speed up the implementation of the processes of testing and implementing innovations, and will reduce their costs. Operator Chmury Krajowej works on launching further services: SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), transformation services and virtual work positions. 

The PKO Bank Polski Group continues its efforts aimed at the improvement of the natural environment. In March 2019, the bank adopted a credit policy for the carbon-intensive energy sector. Within the framework of this policy, it assumes a gradual change in the credit portfolio structure through gradual reduction of exposure in transactions concerning carbon-intensive energy. The Bank also intends to strengthen its ESG rating, which assesses the activities undertaken in the scope of natural environment, corporate social responsibility and corporate governance. 

Such activities include the issue of Green Covered Bonds by PKO Bank Hipoteczny, which, as the first mortgage bank in Poland, has joined the exclusive group of global issuers offering this type of securities. PKO Bank Polski, together with PKO Bank Hipoteczny, has also joined the project aimed at creating standardised, Europe-wide solutions for mortgage loans granted for the financing of apartments and houses that employ energy-efficient solutions. This year, the bank also organised the issue of green bonds for the State Treasury and introduced a new product—the loan of Ekopożyczka PKO for the purchase of photovoltaic devices. The bank’s offer also includes loans granted to housing communities and housing associations for the improvement of energy performance.

Since 1 July, PKO Bank Polski is a merchandise partner of Ekstraklasa. The bank marks its image-presence during all 296 games within the framework of 37 matchweeks. The games’ logo is presented, among other things, on the players’ T-shirts, in the advertising area of all sixteen stadiums, during TV broadcasts, as well as via all communication channels operated by clubs and the league. The company also plans to increase its involvement in direct cooperation with clubs, which is supposed to contribute to their financial and organisational development. Under the agreement in force since 2018, projects launched already in the last season, such as Oficjalna Karta Ekstraklasy, Kanapa Kibica or the choice of a young player of the month and season, will be continued.

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PKO Bank Polski is the undisputable leader of the Polish banking sector. In second quater 2019, its consolidated net profit amounted to PLN 1,22 bilion  (the largest in the Polish banking sector) and the value of assets reached over PLN 329 billion. The Bank is the basic provider of financial services for all customer segments, achieving the highest shares in the deposit market (18.4 percent), loans (17.6 percent), leasing market (11.2 percent) and in the market of investment funds not dedicated (22.2 percent). With over 9.08 million payment cards, the bank is the largest debit and credit card issuer in Poland with a market share of over 21%. Thanks to the development of digital tools, including the IKO application, which has in in the first half of 2019 - 3.6 million active applications, PKO Bank Polski has become the most mobile bank in Poland. The Capital Group's companies strengthen the Bank's strong position. The Brokerage House of PKO Bank Polski is a leader in terms of the number and value of IPO and SPO transactions on the capital market. The effective implementation of the growth strategy meant that at  PKO Bank Polski is the most valuable company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.