Banks fail to attract individual customers, prefer to engage in other activities

The financial data of banks published by the National Bank of Poland suggest that out of 64 of the commercial institutions presently active, at least half could cease to exist without any loss to clients. Banks are receiving fewer and lower deposits and are not taking real steps to make their offer more attractive, or to encourage the public to take loans. Banks are mostly engaging in derivative type transactions at the cost of attracting individual clients. These derivatives are the basic component of off-balance positions, which are three times higher than balance ones. At the end of June, the total balance of the banking sector was approaching zl. 477 billion, while off-balance positions were equal to zl. 1.25 billion. In the first half of this year the banking sector had almost doubled the revenue of last year, with their costs almost doubling at the same time. (Prawo i Gospodarka, p. 6) P.W.