Raising the bar

As the popularity of banking services in Poland increases, more attention is being drawn to consumers' rights. While abuses still occur, the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKIK) claims these issues are being resolved quicker than ever.

"Our cooperation with the banks is good," says Mirosława Piłka of UOKiK, which hosted a recent conference on banking services in Europe. "A lot of customers' complaints are resolved in the initial stage of an inquiry," she added. Katarzyna Marczyńska, banking mediator with the Polish Bank Association (ZBP), adds that the number of official complaints is decreasing. Still, in the last several months, UOKiK has filed 61 objections to banks' practices. "The most common cases involve loans. On granting a loan, banks charge a so-called 'preparation fee', which they often keep in case of a contract abandonment," said Piłka. She added that other problems include various forms of hidden commissions and excessive costs of services.

Marczyńska also mentions disputes over payment cards, or loan vindications. "It is often about principles rather than money itself," she noted. Małgorzata Rothert, Warsaw's consumer ombudsman, added that, because banks are advertising their products very actively, it should be easy for a client to switch banks if they aren't satisfied.

The high cost of banking services is the result of radical but successful transformations, claims Krzysztof Pietrasiewicz, the president ZBP. "We worked really hard on the present shape of Polish banking, often under very unfavorable circumstances," he argues. As the most important achievements, he listed the dynamic growth of banks, radical modernization, reduction of inflation and interest rates as well as high credit-card security standards.