Marcin Mikołajczyk, Deputy Chair of the KNF, spoke at the meeting of the Polish Bank Association’s Section for Cooperative Banks and Affiliating Banks.

In his speech, Marcin Mikołajczyk assessed the current situation of the cooperative banking sector and discussed the challenges ahead of the sector in the years to come. He referred to four main areas: situation of the sector, regulatory environment, operational resilience and cybersecurity, as well as regulatory expectations towards cooperative banks.

Situation of the cooperative banking sector

‘The financial and economic standing of the cooperative banking sector remains stable,’ Marcin Mikołajczyk said. The SREP score assigned in the 2025 cycle points to the satisfactory general standing of the cooperative banking sector. The level of capitalisation, liquidity adequacy and financial results of cooperative banks in recent reporting periods confirm the sector’s resilience to volatile macroeconomic circumstances. The current advantageous situation does not, however, eliminate the challenges of structural nature. Market environment, pace of technological changes, growing expectations of clients and competitive pressure require cooperative banks to further strengthen their business models and operational efficiency.

From the supervisory perspective, it is particularly important for financial stability to go hand in hand with high quality of corporate governance, transparency of decision-making processes, and a mature risk management system. Indeed, long-term competitiveness of the sector will depend not only on ongoing results but also on the sector’s ability to adapt to dynamically changing market conditions – Marcin Mikołajczyk emphasised.

Regulatory environment

Marcin Mikołajczyk has noted that the financial sector faces a growing number and complexity of regulations. He has also emphasised that activities are now taken to simplify regulatory rules and increase their proportionality towards cooperative banks – to the extent allowed under Polish and EU law.

Cybersecurity and operational resilience

Cybersecurity remains one of key areas of the supervision authority’s interest – Marcin Mikołajczyk emphasised. He has highlighted that the overall level of ICT risk for the cooperative banking sector remains under control, although the level of maturity of specific institutions varies. He has emphasised that it is important for banks to cooperate within associations and institutional protection schemes because single institutions may have limited capabilities to respond to all technological threats on their own.

Key challenges for the sector

In the opinion of the supervisory authority, it will be necessary to further develop cooperation within the sector and, where justified, to foster consolidation processes aiming to scale up the activity and resilience of institutions. Marcin Mikołajczyk has indicated that the sector is facing several challenges related to economic, regulatory and technological changes. The KNF remains open to dialogue and cooperation with the cooperative banking sector in order to promote its stable and safe development.