Did the banks miss it?
It means the National Bank and the finance ministry have yet to resolve the many vague issues in the new legislation that allows Poles to legally open accounts in the European Union, the European Economic Area and OECD countries and transfer to and from foreign countries, industry sources declared.
The law on foreign bank accounts was changed on Oct. 1 to comply with EU bank account standards. But training for the changes did not start in most of the country's banks until Oct. 3.
Banking experts raised concerns about the new law's mandates on residency requirements for account owners, transfer claim definitions and the levels of international transfer fees, which banks are now trying to interpret together with the NBP and the finance ministry.
The law's interpretation has caused problems before. Non-residents were often told to withdraw their money in Poland and take it in person to their foreign banks, rather than doing a simple international transfer. This procedure originated from a loose interpretation of the old law, which was understood to place sole responsibility for currency control on the individual bank employee, bankers said.
The finance ministry did not comment on the new law's provision for "foreign account abolition" for those who opened foreign accounts before Oct. 1, but who still have not been called to court yet for opening foreign bank accounts without the NBP's permission. In 2001, 65 people who opened foreign accounts without permission were fined, according to the justice ministry
Same old tactics
Andrew Kinast, a managing partner at consultancy Potworowski, Kinast Grant Thornton, said that that despite the law, some banks would still resort to old tactics to keep their customers and frustrate the spirit of the changes.
"As usual, the banks, and in particular their lawyers, are acting in the old way," Kinast said. "For example, you may be able to do something by law, but banks will dream up administrative procedures just to make sure that although it is your money, they actually have it in their hands."
Banking experts all welcomed the law on foreign accounts but agreed that very few Polish nationals would actually take advantage of it.
"In order to profit from having your money abroad, you need to know exactly what you're doing and you need to have a lot of money," said a representative at Raiffeisen Bank Polska.
"Average people are not really going to use this option. Transfer fees and banking orders are considerably higher abroad than in Poland." He added that so far only two people had inquired about opening foreign bank accounts at Raiffeisen.
Janusz Jankowiak, the chief economist at BRE Bank, echoed this opinion.
"This is not a mass phenomenon," he said. "There are two reasons for that - the possibilities are limited by the amount of one's savings, and not everyone knows the system. The use of banking or investment advisers would put the option out of most people's reach," he said.
Another banker said he doubted the need for such a law in the first place.
"For some it may be a question of prestige to have an account in Switzerland, but what they don't realise is that in order to be a VIP customer there, their savings should be several times higher than in Poland," he said. "Also, in Poland no one questions the origin of one's money, even when dealing with cash. In the EU this is bound to raise the police's suspicions. Those who wanted or needed to, opened their foreign accounts a long time ago.
But having enough money is not the only factor keeping Polish capital in the hands of the domestic banks.
Interest rates, which at 7.5% in Poland are twice as high as the European Union's 3.25% rate and much higher than in the United States (1.75%), leave banking experts confident that Polish savings are not on their way out of the country. But whether the banks can improve their services to match this confidence still remains to be seen, analysts said.
