Poland's Bank Pekao tops quarterly profit forecasts despite tax-driven drop

By Reuters News06:09 (UTC), 29 October 2026 Updated

Oct 29 (Reuters) - Bank Pekao PEO.WA reported an about 20% drop in its third-quarter profit mainly due to the higher income tax Poland levied on domestic banks to fund defence spending, but still beat market expectations on Thursday.

Pekao joins rivals mBank MBK.WA, Millennium MILP.WA and Alior ALRR.WA in exceeding third-quarter forecasts, helped by resilient core operations and lower costs related to Swiss franc loans, even as Polish banking profits are squeezed by higher taxes, earlier rate cuts and consumer-loan claims.

Quarterly net profit fell to 1.52 billion zlotys ($386 million), against a company-compiled consensus of 1.46 billion
Net interest income rose 2.8% to 3.53 billion zlotys, broadly in line with expectations, helped by lower deposit costs and loan growth
Net fee and commission income rose 11.2% to 853 million zlotys, slightly above consensus, driven by fees on loans and investment and insurance products
Bank Pekao economists expect cumulative rate hikes of 75 basis points at the turn of 2026 and 2027
As of end-September, 2,380 free credit sanction cases were pending, with a disputed value of 75.9 million zlotys

($1 = 3.9418 zlotys)