Safe Bank

The article describes changes in regulatory requirements, introduced by way of revision of the CRR regulation and the CRD directive, for banks, which are conducting banking activities in the European Union. The author analyzes amendments in the regulatory framework and indicates the most important requirements from the banking sector’s perspective both in Poland and the European Union.

The article focuses on the issue of intensification of regulatory requirements in the European banking sector in the post-crisis period, which entailed an emphasis on the principle of compliance and the enforcement actions of banking supervision authorities. The purpose of the article is to stress the relationships between an increase in the number and intensity of banking regulations in the post-crisis period, and the growing role of the compliance function and an increase in the importance of the enforcement actions. Based on the conducted analyses, it has been shown that the increase in the number of post-crisis banking regulations and their level of complexity also requires intensification of enforcement actions by the banking supervision authorities.

The purpose of this material is an analysis of the processes of fixing the FX rate on the FX market in the context of the interference of the Polish Consumer Protection Authority and the courts in the content of mortgage loan contracts denominated or indexed in foreign currency. In particular, it was analyzed whether the average currency rate – binding in a particular moment – may be deemed to be more or less beneficial for any party. Empiric research confirms that in the conditions of contemporary market economy and effective FX market, it is neither possible nor beneficial to influence the FX rate for the benefit of any market participant. The conclusions are that the most important thing is to protect the rules of market competition in which all deviations from commonly accepted practice are naturally eliminated. This reflection should be always made during discussions on abusiveness questions and its excessive use for the benefit of one of the parties, in order not to forget about more general approach with respect to the consequences.

The aim of the paper is to discuss the main results of the „Banking Reputation” study. It analyzed whether the stability of the banking system is the result of its good reputation or, conversely, whether the banking sector has a good reputation due to its stability and operating rules. Empirical research was carried out on a nationwide representative sample of N = 1000 inhabitants of Poland. Interviews were conducted using the CAPI method in March 2019. Banks in Poland have a good reputation. Good reputation factors definitely dominate over bad reputation factors. Banks have improved the quality of customer relationships, and satisfaction with bank services has increased. The most important factor in banks’ reputation is the correct response by banks and financial safety net in Poland to normative expectations formulated by consumers towards banks.

The article characterizes the concept of the mortgage loan and the mortgage market based on data for the years 2010 – 2018. The study is focused particularly on the changes introduced pursuant to The Act on Mortgage Loan and Supervision over Mortgage Brokers and Agents. The purpose of this article is to present these changes in the context of the consumer protection model in the mortgage market. A hypothesis was made that The Act on Mortgage Loan of 23 March 2017 introduces a number of positive changes with regard to the consumer protection. The article is a review based on the national literature on the subject.

It is common practice on the financial services market to use loan collateral by transferring rights from a property or life insurance contract. This also applies to consumer trading. For this reason, practical problems must be faced not only at the stage of transfer of claims from the insurance contract, but primarily at the stage of implementation of claims – after an insurance accident. The purpose of this article is to analyze the legal and actual procedural position of the insured-borrower or his heirs in that cases. The procedural solutions proposed in the case-law will be analyzed in the light of their compliance with the requirement to guarantee consumers the effectiveness of protection instruments provided for in the EU consumer law regime. This will also determine the need to refer to economic relations between the insured-borrower, the bank and the insurer.

Introduced in 2017, the obligatory entry of credit intermediaries into the public register, kept by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, is another result of legislative work aiming at improving the general level of security on the market of credits and loans granted to consumers. The study carried out a detailed analysis of legal regulations determining the entry in the register, as well as the legal doctrine. The aim is to demonstrate that the entry in the register is of a constitutive nature, since the option of loan brokerage carried out on a continuous basis, organized and paid, and thus having the characteristics of a business activity, depends on it. Another goal is to establish that the activities of credit brokers are regulated activities within the meaning of the Entrepreneurs Act. To sum up, it was assessed that the introduction of a mandatory entry in the register made it possible to organize this part of the loan market and to improve the safety of consumers using the services of credit intermediaries.

The changing financial needs of customers, and rapid development of information technology in recent years have been very important determinants of changes taking place in the financial world. This also applies to the banking sector, for which more and more developed entities implementing technological innovations in process of financial services (FinTech) mean the need to take steps to continue their existing banking operations. In this sense, the existence of businesses whose activity is an alternative to banks (at least in selected areas of economic activity)
may, on the one hand, mean a threat, and on the other a chance for banks, provided appropriate measures are taken to respond to the dynamically changing environment. The aim of this publication is to analyze the relationship between FinTech entities and banks, with particular reference to possible scenarios for the development of the banking sector based on past observations.

The presented cases of the studies in the article are aimed at tracing the history of some of the biggest scandals in the world related to corporate governance and confirmation of the thesis that observing the corporate governance rules is necessary for functioning of the financial markets. The examples presented allow to analyze step by step how fraud has occurred and sometimes led to the loss of life savings for ordinary citizens. The presented cases allow to analyze the errors and draw conclusions by the offices which are responsible for controlling financial markets. There are some examples of companies which show that the subject of corporate governance is up to date, and the problems with supervision and correct management of companies are of a global nature.