Wrapup 1: Polish banks expect growth in corporate loans while awaiting interest rates cut

Mbank SA

30/04/2025 11:56

GDANSK, April 30 (Reuters) - Three Polish banks recorded growth in corporate loans in the first quarter and expect credit action to pick up supported by interest rates cuts and government programmes, they said on Wednesday.

Michal Gajewski, CEO of the Polish unit of Spanish lender Santander SAN.MC, said the bank recorded a 22% rise in sales of new corporate credits limits, excluding factoring and leasing, in the first quarter of the year.

"The sales trend in cash loans is positive ... potential (rate cuts), possible government programmes should stimulate bigger sales of mortgage loans," Gajewski said.

Poland's main interest rate has been at 5.75% since October 2023, but with the outlook for inflation lower than previously thought a growing number of policymakers have been signalling that the cost of credit may soon fall.

Gajewski said that expected investment programmes related to the European Union and European funds will accelerate and they would be a driving force for the credit demand.

The management of Poland's second biggest lender by market capitalization did not want to comment on the potential sale of the Polish arm by Banco Santander during the conference call.

Poland's third biggest lender by market capitalization, Bank Pekao PEO.WA, noted the increase in cash loans among its clients in the small and medium-sized enterprises segment.

"In all these segments, our loans and volumes are growing in double digits, which we are pleased about," Pekao CFO Dagmara Wojnar said.

She said the bank initially assumed interest rate cuts would occur in the second half of the year, but as they are accelerating the bank is adjusting its deposit rates to balance potentially falling interest rates.

mBank, in which Commerzbank's CBKG.DE holds a 69% stake, also said it expect rise in new sales of retail loans and acceleration of corporate financing, but it does not anticipate direct impact of U.S. tariffs on its clients' business.

"The consensus that currently prevails is that the impact (of tariffs) on Poland should be rather neutral, slightly positive," mBank Chief Risk Officer Marek Lusztyn said.

Santander Bank Polska, Bank Pekao and mBank reported growth in their net profit, supported by lower costs related to Swiss franc loans (FX), which have been a burden for Polish banks in recent years after Swiss rates and the franc spiked, driving up repayment costs and triggering legal disputes that pushed banks to seek settlements.

 (Reporting by Adrianna Ebert, Anna Banacka, and Anna Jaworska-Guidotti; editing by Ed Osmond)

 ((Adrianna.Ebert@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 65 88;))