Head of banks grilled over fee raises

The executives of Polish lenders faced questions by Polish politicians on Tuesday concerning raising loan margins and service fees in connection with the new bank tax. "I didn't call banks' CEOs on the carpet. It is about learning why they have raised their fees and margins," said Andrzej Jaworski, head of the public finance commission. Wojciech Kwaśniak, deputy chair of financial watchdog KNF said that banks may have difficulties with shifting costs of the new tax on clients due to "high competition on the market." Nonetheless, he quoted a KNF survey, which showed 15 out of 20 banks increased margin or interest on housing loans in Q4'15 or Q1'16 , in the case of consumer loans it was 12 banks, while in the case of loans for SMEs it was 14. Zbigniew Jagiełło, head of state-controled bank PKO BP said the since 2010 the lender has revised  it provisions and fees on an annual basis. He highlighted that due to a growing number of clients,  fees but  per one client has been diminishing. PKO BP, which grants every fourth mortgage loan in Poland, has the lowest of one of the lowest margins on housing loans, Jagiełło also said.