One year after the US Federal Reserve announced it intended to scale down its quantitative easing programme, and six months after it actually started to do so, the prospect of interest rates creeping up is still a frightening proposition for many businesses across the globe. For Polish banks, however, it is just the opposite. They are looking forward to interest rates going up as it will boost their revenues.
In better shape than many of their peers in eastern Europe and helped by a resilient economy, Polish banks are now looking for ways to continue to grow despite headwinds such as shrinking net interest margins, various stress-tests and a multitude of regulatory constraints that will add to their costs.