Polish banks reluctant to embrace open banking

With open banking growing in popularity across the globe and the Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) coming into full force, many Polish banks are reluctant to embrace open banking. Leaders at many Polish banks believe that open banking is unnecessary for them as the point of open banking is to meet consumer needs and that they are meeting these needs independently. In fact, Polish banks in general have not shied away from digital transformation, with many already developing and implementing new applications, using biometric tools to identify customers and reorganizing their structures to unleash creativity. It is also worth noting that Poland has relatively low margins, fewer loans and fewer deposits than other countries. This makes it more difficult for large-enough scales of operation to be meet for many innovations brought by open banking to become profitable. Nevertheless, the openness of PSD2 will inevitably weaken the digital advantages many Polish banks have obtained on their own, and complacency among today’s digital leaders could eventually mean them turning into a peripheral fortress that will lose tomorrow’s customers.