On 20 August 2026, PKO Bank Polski, Poland's largest bank, announced it had received approval from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) to launch a portfolio management service. That is more than just another product on the shelf of the country's biggest lender — it is a signal of where the whole banking sector is heading at a moment when deposit rates have stopped rising and customers are increasingly asking what to do with cash sitting idle in their accounts.
What exactly PKO Bank Polski was approved for
PKO's brokerage arm plans to launch, later this year, a service under which clients can either pick a ready-made investment portfolio designed by the bank's analysts or build their own strategy from the available asset menu. The bank stresses that it will be the only player on the Polish market allowing clients to combine Treasury savings bonds, in a single portfolio, with Polish equities and instruments listed on international markets. The service is set to go live in the fourth quarter of 2026.
This is part of a broader strategy. PKO's private banking clients currently hold around PLN 85 billion in assets, and the bank has stated it wants to reach PLN 100 billion by the end of 2027. In other words, this is a service aimed primarily at wealthier clients — people for whom a simple savings account or a single term deposit is no longer enough to manage their wealth efficiently.
Why banks are suddenly interested in wealth management
It is no coincidence that this decision is landing now. The NBP reference rate has held at 3.75% since March 2026, and recent statements from the Monetary Policy Council suggest further cuts are unlikely in the coming months. For banks, that means the traditional business model — earning the spread between loan and deposit rates — is no longer growing the way it did a year or two ago. Charging fees for managing client assets, rather than relying solely on net interest income, becomes a natural direction to pursue.
PKO is not a pioneer here — competitors have long been building out brokerage services, robo-advisory tools and investment offerings alongside their private banking arms. What is new is the scale, and the fact that, for the first time, a single portfolio will combine relatively safe Treasury bonds with riskier equities — until now, clients had to manage these separately, through different accounts and platforms.
What this means for the average bank customer
This raises the question that should really matter to a reader who has nothing to do with private banking: does this trend affect me too? The answer is — indirectly, yes, even if you will never use a portfolio management service yourself.
First, banks are becoming more active in nudging customers away from simple, safe products — term deposits and savings accounts — toward investment products that generate higher fees for the bank. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean you need to be deliberate about comparing like with like. A bank deposit up to EUR 100,000 is covered by the Bank Guarantee Fund (BFG) — if the bank fails, your money comes back. An investment portfolio made up of equities and bonds carries no such guarantee: its value can fall, and the management fee (typically 1–2% per year) is charged regardless of performance.
Second, the more banks earn from investment services, the less incentive they have to compete aggressively on the rates of plain term deposits and savings accounts. In practice, some banks are already trimming rates on these products faster than NBP moves alone would justify, betting that customers will stay with the bank anyway and simply shift their capital into a pricier investment product instead. That makes regularly comparing current rates — rather than leaving savings on an old contract with automatic renewal — more important today than it was a few years ago.
Treasury bonds in the same portfolio as equities — what to watch out for
The idea of combining retail Treasury bonds with equities and funds sounds appealing — in theory it gives you a single dashboard showing your entire wealth, with the bank handling rebalancing on your behalf. In practice, a few things are worth keeping in mind. Savings bonds bought directly from the Polish Treasury have a fixed maturity date, and early redemption means giving up part of the accrued interest — they are not as liquid as money in a savings account, which you can withdraw at any time without losing interest already earned. Folding them into a managed portfolio does not change that basic feature; it simply adds a management fee on top.
Before anyone signs up for a service like this, it is worth asking the bank a few plain questions: what is the total management fee, does it stack on top of brokerage commissions per transaction, what is the minimum entry threshold, and how easy is it to exit if the chosen strategy underperforms. These are questions that are easy to skip in the excitement of a shiny new, conveniently packaged offer.
The bigger picture: banks are hunting for new revenue
PKO's move is best read in the context of the whole sector. With interest rates parked around 3.75% for several months now and no signs of an imminent cut, banks in Poland are actively looking for revenue beyond classic lending and deposit-taking — hence the growth in brokerage, insurance, and now wealth management services. For customers, that means more choice, but also more products that need to be told apart before signing anything.
For people who do not yet have the assets to qualify for private banking, the more relevant task remains keeping the basics in order: is the personal account you use every day still competitive on fees, and are your savings — even modest ones — sitting in the product with genuinely the best available rate, rather than in an account the bank set up conveniently for itself, betting on customer inertia.
Summary — what you should do
- If you are not a private banking client, PKO's new service does not directly affect you — but treat the news as a reminder to check the rate on your own savings regularly.
- Compare whether your current term deposit or savings account still offers a rate close to the best available on the market, rather than letting an old contract auto-renew.
- If you are considering an investment product a bank offers you, ask outright about the total management cost and what happens to your money if the portfolio loses value — unlike a deposit, there is no BFG guarantee here.
- Do not read banks' growing investment offerings as a sign that plain saving has "gone out of fashion" — for most households, a safe term deposit or savings account remains a sensible first step.
Before you decide what to do with money you have set aside, check the current listings of best term deposits and best savings accounts on BankSorter.com — the fastest way to make sure your savings are not quietly losing real value while banks focus their attention on wealthier clients.