By virtue of the Act of 7 April 2022 amending the Act on Covered Bonds and Mortgage Banks and Certain Other Acts, the possibility of establishing a protection system was introduced into the Polish legal system. A protection system may be established voluntarily by banks operating as joint stock companies, on the basis of a protection system agreement that will regulate the extent of the protection system participant’s liability for obligations arising from participation in the system. The goal of the protection system is:
- ensuring the liquidity and solvency of banks-participants under the terms and to the extent specified in the protection system agreement;
- supporting:
- the conduct of resolution of a bank that is a joint stock company by BFG;
- takeover of a bank that is a joint stock company under Article 146b sec. 1 of the Banking Law.
On 14 June 2022, the banks (participants in the protection system): Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski SA, Pekao, Bank Millennium SA, BNP Paribas Bank Polska SA, ING Bank Śląski SA, mBank SA, Santander Bank Polska SA and Alior Bank, entered into a Protection System Agreement and established a protection system. The incorporated company, under the name System Ochrony Banków Komercyjnych SA, is the management company of the protection system.
On 14 September 2022, the Extraordinary Shareholder Meeting of System Ochrony Banków Komercyjnych adopted a resolution on additional contributions to the aid fund by participant banks in the amount of 0.038% of each participant bank’s guaranteed funds, as of the last day of the second quarter of 2022.
The total cost of the fee for the aid fund established at the protection system management unit amounted to PLN 696 million in the PZU Group (PLN 482 million at Pekao and PLN 214 million at Alior Bank) and was charged to the consolidated income statement in Q2 2022 (PLN 636 million) and Q3 2022 (PLN 60 million).