Few thoughts about key role of banks in winning against crisis
Przemek Gdanski (he/him)
chief EMPOWERMENT officer at BNP Paribas Bank Polska, Head of Territory for BNP Paribas Group Companies in Poland, Member of Top-100 executives of BNP Paribas (over 38k LinkedIn followers - thank you all ????!)
This morning I had an honour to take part in the "Impact re:action" discussion about post-Covid reality. It was a dynamic exchange of views with Jadwiga Emilewicz, Deputy Prime Minister, Kinga Piecuch, CEE Enterprise Industry Head at Microsoft, Bartosz Cio?kowski, Country Manager Poland, Czech Republic & Slovakia at Mastercard and Adam Marciniak, CIO at PKO BP.
Not surprisingly, I focused on the crucial role of the banking sector in supporting the economy in post-Covid acceleration. All banks in Poland have passed the exam in being emphatetic, prompt to react and proactive at the early stages of the pandemic. The sector developed and launched credit moratorium in already in mid-March, has made all the necessary investments and system adjustments to be able to effectively distribute subsidised funds from the Polish Development Fund (PFR), actively uses the guarantee schemes of the Polish Development Bank (BGK). At the same time banks themselves face major headwinds, including three reductions of the interest rates and substantial increase of the cost of risk. This year will be very tough for the sector and one should not be surprised if we see losses in some of the players’ P&L’s for 2020.
Poland not only needs a healthy banking system to get out of the recession, but also to potentially benefit from the widely expected transfer of production facilities from distant locations to Europe.
In order to be able to continue supporting the Polish economy, the banking system must be sound and strong. Otherwise, creation of new credits that will be of key importance to many entrepreneurs, companies and corporate entities, will simply not be feasible. That scenario should be avoided at all cost. In this context, the Government and politicians should abstain from generating initiatives that would put further pressure on the banks. One of such initiative is the project of State-imposed “credit holidays” that is currently in the Parliament. Hopefully, the longer-term interests of the Polish economy will ultimately prevail and that idea will not materialise.
We all should more and more think about the future of the economy and the whole country, as opposed to focusing on short-term measures. The health of the banking system will have a major impact upon that future. Let’s act responsibly and with a longer-term vision.
Psychologist | Psychometrician | Co-Founder of 313C Psychometric Games | Recruitment Manager at Family Action
4 年Przemek Gdanski, fully agreed. One of the main challenges is that long-term thinking in the times of crisis demands an exceptional, visionary, strong and trusted leadership. If we had that across the sectors and industries going through hard times, things would be much easier. In this context, thank you for sharing insights from the banking reality - I see your systematic knowledge sharing as part of the kind of leadership mentioned above.