⚠ Switching Is Free, and Regulators Keep Making It EasierModerate threat

PKO Bank Polski (PKO) — threat to the moat

Every reform since 2016 has been aimed squarely at the inertia this moat is made of.

PKO's cheapest funding is held in place by inconvenience, and inconvenience is exactly what financial regulation spends its time removing.

Net customers added per year (thousand)+5462022+2452023+2222024+3272025PKO Bank Polski directors' report 2025: 11 120 thousand customers in 2021 to 12 460 thousand in 2025
Leaving costs a Polish customer nothing, and PKO still adds more than 200 000 a year, net of those who go.

Polish account-switching rules already oblige banks to help a departing customer move standing orders and direct debits. European payments regulation continues to reduce the friction of moving money between institutions. Each step makes PKO's 9 764 thousand current accounts1 marginally easier to leave, and none of it is anything the bank can influence.

The exposure is asymmetric in a way that matters. A customer who leaves takes the transactional balance — the part that costs PKO almost nothing and earns the 4,76% margin2 — and typically leaves the mortgage behind, because loans are harder to move than accounts. The bank could lose the good half of the relationship and keep the capital-consuming half.

There is no sign of it happening: current accounts have risen every year since 20213.

The base has kept widening while the reforms accumulated: 9 764 thousand current accounts against 12 460 thousand customers4, and the customer count itself rose again to 12,6 million by mid-20265. Ten years of policy aimed squarely at this inertia has not yet moved it.

The measure is current accounts against total customers. It is the only visible proxy for whether PKO remains the primary bank for its base, and a fall there would show up long before deposits did.

References
  1. ReportedEach step makes PKO's 9 764 thousand current accounts marginally easier to leave, and none of it is anything the bank can influence.
    PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for 2025 - the customer base (12 460 thousand customers against 11 120 thousand five years earlier, 9 764 thousand current accounts, and more than 8,7 million active installations of the IKO mobile application) — FY2021-FY2025 · publ. 12 March 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedA customer who leaves takes the transactional balance — the part that costs PKO almost nothing and earns the 4,76% margin — and typically leaves the mortgage behind, because loans are harder to move than accounts.
    PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for 2025 - the efficiency and quality ratios (return on equity of 19,5%, return on assets of 1,9%, a cost-to-income ratio of 31,1%, net interest margin of 4,76%, cost of credit risk of 0,30% and impaired exposures at 3,34% of the portfolio) — FY2025 · publ. 12 March 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThere is no sign of it happening: current accounts have risen every year since 2021.
    PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for 2025 - the customer base (12 460 thousand customers against 11 120 thousand five years earlier, 9 764 thousand current accounts, and more than 8,7 million active installations of the IKO mobile application) — FY2021-FY2025 · publ. 12 March 2026 · source ↗
  4. ReportedThe base has kept widening while the reforms accumulated: 9 764 thousand current accounts against 12 460 thousand customers, and the customer count itself rose again to 12,6 million by mid-2026.
    PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for the six months ended 30 June 2026, published with reviewed financial statements (profit before tax of 8 319m złoty up 19,9%, income tax of 3 029m up 67,4%, net profit of 5 290m up 3,1%, return on equity of 19,3%, cost-to-income of 31,4%, interest margin of 4,47% against 4,91%, cost of risk of 0,29%, total assets past 608 448m, 12,6 million customers, common equity tier 1 of 15,55%, and a further 685m złoty of convertible-currency legal risk) — H1 2026 · publ. 13 August 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedThe base has kept widening while the reforms accumulated: 9 764 thousand current accounts against 12 460 thousand customers, and the customer count itself rose again to 12,6 million by mid-2026.
    PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for the six months ended 30 June 2026, published with reviewed financial statements (profit before tax of 8 319m złoty up 19,9%, income tax of 3 029m up 67,4%, net profit of 5 290m up 3,1%, return on equity of 19,3%, cost-to-income of 31,4%, interest margin of 4,47% against 4,91%, cost of risk of 0,29%, total assets past 608 448m, 12,6 million customers, common equity tier 1 of 15,55%, and a further 685m złoty of convertible-currency legal risk) — H1 2026 · publ. 13 August 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026