PKO Bank Polski

PKO Bank Polski

Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna (PKO Bank Polski, PKO BP) is Poland's largest bank. It provides services to individual and business clients. The core business activity of PKO Bank Polski is retail banking. The full name Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności roughly means "General Savings Bank," and Bank Polski means "Polish Bank." Popularly only the acronym is used.

Today (as at the end of 2010) PKO Bank Polski employs less than 27,000 people and has a full-year net profit of over 3 billion PLN (more than 1 billion US dollars). Its assets are worth more than 167 billion PLN (around 60 billion US dollars). Bank was ranked 510 in the Forbes Global 2000 for year 2010. The bank is also present outside Poland, notably in Ukraine after the acquisition of KredoBank (Кредобанк)). The company is headquartered in central Warsaw.

Because of its size and position as one of the first banks, PKO Bank Polski is still one of the best recognized and most valuable brands in Poland. Specialists from The Banker magazine estimated the value of Bank's brand at USD 1 billion and in Rzeczpospolita "Polish Brands 2010" ranking its value was set at PLN 3.6 billion. In the 2011 edition of ranking "The BrandFinance® Banking 500" prepared by the British firm Brand Finance, which includes the most valuable bank brands in the world, PKO Bank Polski brand was valued at USD 1.480 billion. It gives PKO Bank Polski the 1st place in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe and 114th place in the world.

Although floated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, as of May 2011 the state still directly and indirectly holds 51.24% of shares (40.99% belong to State Treasury and 10.25% to state-owned Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego). However, the state shareholders informed recently that they intent to sell some of their shares. As Polish Minister of State Treasury Aleksander Grad said, Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego will sell 10% and the Treasury Ministry will sell more shares according to market demand. Total government stake in PKO Bank Polski after this transaction is to fall to as low as 25%.

PKO Bank Polski should not be confused with another large, old Polish bank with an identical acronym, Bank Pekao S.A.