[GRI 102-3] The Bank's Capital Group is a leading financial institution in Central and Easter Europe with the bank's head office located in Warsaw. [GRI 102-5] PKO Bank Polski, the parent entity of the group, is a joint-stock company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2004. It is the largest commercial bank in Poland in terms of its asset value and equity, value of loans and deposits, size of its distribution network, and number of customers and employees. [GRI 102-2] It is a universal bank providing deposit and lending services to individuals and legal entities, conducting its operations in the retail, and corporate and investment segments.

The bank has 12 direct subsidiaries in which it holds 100% of shares. [GRI 102-43] Due to such ownership structure of the group, the subsidiaries report directly to the bank, which acts as their parent entity. Through its subsidiaries, the group offers mortgage loans and other specialized financial services including leasing, factoring, investment funds, pension funds and insurance, fleet management services, transfer agent services, technological solutions and real estate management, as well as conducting banking operations, and providing debt collection and financial services. [GRI 102-7] The bank offers its services through a network of 975 branches and 447 agencies in Poland, and delivers them to 11 mln retail customers and 17 thousand corporate customers. [GRI 102-4, 102-6] The group operates in the territory of the Republic of Poland. Through its subsidiaries it also operates in Ukraine, Sweden and Ireland, and through its branches in Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia. [GRI 102-9] It cooperates with business partners as a buyer of goods and services, and as a principal for the agency and outsourcing services.

The group stands out on the Polish market in terms of its high financial results, which ensure its stable and safe development. At the end of 2021, the bank was the largest company listed on the WSE, its value during the last session reaching PLN 56.2 billion. The results of the European stress tests confirm that PKO Bank Polski is one of the safest banks in Europe.

The group retains leading shares in the Polish savings market (19.2%), loans (17.4%) and the market for investment funds of individuals (19.9%). PKO Bank Polski is a leader in terms of the number of current accounts and payment cards maintained. The group’s portfolio of financing granted to customers in 2021 stood at PLN 248 billion. By the end of 2021, amounts due to customers reached over PLN 322 billion.

[GRI 102-13] The bank is a member of many industry and regional organizations (e.g. Association of Polish Banks, Credit Information Bureau, NATO Industry Cyber Partnership, Institute of International Finance), and many business organizations such as chambers of commerce and business associations (e.g. Polish Association of Listed Companies, Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers, Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs).

More about Corporate governance principles

The management structure of PKO Bank Polski and entities of the group is based on the standard market principles of management. The bank’s organizational structure is divided into 9 areas, which reflect the areas of its business operations: the Area of the President of the Management Board, the Strategic Client and Investment Banking Area, the Finance and Accounting Area, the Business and Enterprise Banking and Corporate Client Area, the Administration Area, the Retail Market and International Banking Area, the Operations Area, the Technology Area, the Risk Management Area. 

A new organizational unit was set up in the President of the Management Board Area in October 2022 – the Department of Sustainable Development ESG, coordinating activities ensuring sustainable and responsible development of the Bank and the Bank's Group in the field of ESG. This means that the environmental and social issues gained recognition in the management structure of the bank. 

More about the Management Board

Diversity management at the bank covers all employees, governing bodies and key managers. Diversity means that people are important irrespective of their gender, age, health, sexual orientation, religion, marital status or country of origin. Diversity initiatives have an impact on various aspects of the group's operations and their aim is to ensure respect for other people, their equal treatment and using each employee's potential. We aim to ensure, promote and popularize diversity at the bank and in the entire bank’s group. We take care that diversity as a value, but also as a practice, is present in our organizational culture, initiatives and measures taken, as well as in the relevant policies, regulations and processes in force at the bank.

Diversity initiatives are disclosed to the Supervisory Board and the Management Board on an annual basis.

The bank's Code of Ethics and Employment regulations include provisions for prevention of discrimination due to gender, age, disability, religion or faith, sexual orientation, race, ethnic origin, nationality, political convictions, membership in unions or type of the employment contract. [GRI 405-1] Diversity management also pertains to the members of the Supervisory Board and the Management Board of PKO Bank Polski and the key managers. Management and supervisory personnel includes people of different gender, age and experience.

Diversity according to gender, age and experience

The bank also introduced provisions that set the directions for selecting, appointing and planning for succession, including staff resources and assessing suitability of the Management Board members and persons having key functions at the bank. They are assessed in terms of their competence, knowledge and skills, adequacy of experience for the position and reputation defined as sufficiently unblemished opinion, honesty and ethical behaviour. As a result of these regulations, the Supervisory Board decides on the selection and assessment of the Management Board members, while the Management Board follows a similar procedure for the assessment of the Material Risk Takers (MRTs). The Supervisory Board further monitors the effectiveness of the adopted policy and makes changes as appropriate by taking into account the recommendations of the Committee for Nominations and Remunerations.

In 2021, the aforementioned policies were adjusted to the changes resulting from the new Good Practices for WSE Listed Companies (2021) by adding additional criteria supporting diversity in the composition of the Bank’s Management Board and Supervisory Board in terms of age and gender, and indicating the expected minimum participation of the less numerous gender in these bodies (30%).

[GRI 102-16] The main document governing ethics at PKO Bank Polski is the Code of Ethics. As well as supporting the organizational culture at the bank, it promotes and seeks to implement the bank's values such as reliability, customer satisfaction, entrepreneurship and continuous improvement. These values should be followed by all employees of the bank, regardless of their position or function. Apart from the Code of Ethics, we also apply the Code of Banking Ethics (Principles of good banking practice) by the Association of Polish Banks.

In practical terms, the code is a tool supporting the popularization and implementation of ethical values at the bank. Its provisions are binding on the employees and all persons who perform business activities for or on behalf of the bank or act as intermediaries in the bank’s operations. According to the bank’s Employment Regulations, every employee of the bank is obliged to observe the Code of Ethics. Initiatives are organized to promote the Code of Ethics and the bank’s values.

In addition, training in ethics and the Bank’s values was prepared for all employees.

In addition to the above, the bank’s Code of Ethics and its Employment Regulations address such issues as not using any confidential information for private purposes, taking no actions that could be in conflict with one's employment duties, prohibiting lobbying activities and preventing corrupt practices. A dedicated module on ethics makes part of every induction training for all new employees. In order to counteract breaches of the principles of ethics, the bank applies a number of separate internal regulations for counteracting mobbing and discrimination, and handling complaints for violation of employee rights. The bank also investigates each case for non-compliance and violations related to the conflicts of interest. Employees may report such instances to a specially-designated e-mail address. Their doubts in relation to ethics are resolved on an ongoing basis.

In order to introduce uniform standards, the bank shared with the group's entities the Code of Ethics of the PKO Bank Polski Group Entities, which implements the provisions of the bank's Code of Ethics. The entities of the group implemented the Code which means the application of uniform principles across the entire bank’s group.