Safe Bank

The article focuses on problems related to regulatory and supervisory problems of stabilizing large global banks, which were revealed during the recent crises: the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, the economic crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the recent problems of the US West Coast banks (March-May 2023). The text was also inspired by discussions that took place during the conference: "This time is different: post-pandemic banking and financial markets," held at the Cracow University of Economics in April 2023. The purpose of the article is to analyze the problems revealed by crises or external shocks, and to provide a synthesis of experiences related to public policy towards large banks.

Systemic contagion measurement is challenging in the European banking sector due to data availability issues and the specific nature of strong ownership ties between parent institutions and their subsidiaries. The paper presents a new approach that allows measuring the contagion effect generated by non-listed systemically important European banks based on their ties with listed – systemically important European banks. This approach is illustrated by an empirical study applying ΔCoVaR to 58 banks in the period 01.2006–04.2023, in which contagion was analyzed for 13 groups of related banks. The proposed approach makes it possible to significantly increase the pool of studied systemically important banks. Notably, it takes into account systemic risk characteristic of both: the mother bank and its subsidiaries, as well as the specificity of turbulence characteristic of each analyzed financial system. Therefore, the method is a useful alternative for regulators and central banks in European countries where using the CoVaR measure - in its classical form, is ineffective.

Against the background of literature studies and empirical analyses, the article deals with the complexity and main consequences of banking crises, especially its economic costs.

In the first part of the article, conceptual considerations and empirical studies on banking crises are conducted against the background of a critical analysis of the literature and the author's interpretation of this category of economics and finance.  In the second part of the article, the systemic complexities of banking crises are characterized, and in the third part, the main consequences of these crises in terms of changes in GDP, loss of property of households and enterprises, fiscal costs and depreciation of assets. The fourth part is devoted to a critical analysis of the literature on the political and institutional consequences of banking crises, highlighting the rise of populist ideas and their supporters who force regulatory changes.

From the perspective of Article 405 et seq. of the Polish Civil Code saving expenses may constitute a financial benefit with an obligation for the enriched party to reimburse its value. Saving expenses may be the result of an event in the form of rendering a service to the enriched party, primarily if the service is provided without any legal grounds. The subject of the financial benefit implying the obligation of reimbursement in such cases is the expense saved for the remuneration of the provider of the service. The service provider, on the other hand, may be deemed to be impoverished in such a case for the sole reason that he has not received remuneration for a service that is normally chargeable. Under the terms of an invalid swiss franc loan agreement, the event from which the enrichment in the form of the borrower's saved expenses for obtaining the financing arises is the bank's undue service of refraining from seeking repayment of the capital paid out to the consumer for a certain period of time. The bank's impoverishment, on the other hand, manifests itself in its failure to obtain remuneration for the service of making the capital available, despite the fact that it was provided and it is normally chargeable (under commercial conditions). The permissibility under national legislation of granting the bank a claim exceeding the value of the loan capital disbursed in the performance of an invalid contract cannot be assessed in disregard of the provisions of Directive 93/13, which, in the author's view, should justify only a limitation of its amount in view of the need to interpret the consequences of the invalidity of the contract resulting from the exclusion of its material provisions on the basis of Article 385(1)(1) of the Polish Civil Code in accordance with Article 7(1) of Directive 93/13.

The research and publications conducted so far have been paying a limited attention to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the risk culture, in regards to financial institutions in particular. On the basis of the qualitative analysis and literature review, the main cultural post-pandemic effects of economic activity were reviewed. The aim of the study is to identify changes and make an initial assessment of the transforming risk culture in traditional financial institutions. The article consists of three sections. In the first one we discuss the role, features and values of risk culture, emphasizing the differences in traditionally managed entities and those focused on functioning in a digital environment. In the second section, we focus on showing contemporary determinants shaping the risk culture. These include four groups of factors: digital transformation, risk management system, regulators' approach, customer risk culture and the phenomenon that complements this analysis - growing, widespread fear and anxiety. The third part is a summary of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the formation of a new shape of risk culture. We believe that the crisis phenomena had the strongest impact on two main areas of functioning of financial institutions, especially banks: the decision-making process and the risk management system. Based on the presented review, recommendations are formulated both for further research and applications.

The years 2020-2023 are a period of functioning of Polish cooperative banks in the conditions of deep and extremely dynamic changes in the environment of a social and economic nature, having a shock character. The article analyses in depth selected factors increasing the instability of the environment of cooperative banks in Poland and assesses their impact on changes in the financial situation of the sector. Based on the analysis of data and on the conclusions of a panel discussion of managers of protection systems of associations and cooperative banks, the most important opportunities and threats in the economic and regulatory aspect were identified, taking into account the perspective of the turbulent economic and social environment still observed in 2023