UOKiK and Police Raid BIK, ING and mBank
On Wednesday, 8 July 2026, officials from Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) — accompanied by police and acting on a court warrant — entered the offices of four institutions: the Credit Information Bureau (BIK), ING Bank Śląski, mBank, and mBank Hipoteczny. The reason? The regulator is checking whether BIK's credit-scoring system has, for years, punished consumers for doing something taught in any personal-finance course: comparing offers before taking on a long-term financial commitment.
Scale and background of the case
This was not a sudden move. UOKiK has been running an explanatory proceeding on the matter since March 2025. The 8 July searches are its escalation — a tool the regulator's president reaches for when there is reason to suspect evidence of a competition-law breach may be found on a company's premises. UOKiK President Tomasz Chróstny commented directly: a conscious consumer must not be punished in any way by a reduced credit score for shopping around for a better deal. If violations are confirmed, the institutions involved face steep financial penalties — under Polish antitrust law, fines can reach up to 10 percent of annual turnover.
The paradox of credit inquiries
Every application for a loan or credit card at a bank generates a so-called credit inquiry, which is reported to BIK and factored into the scoring algorithm. The problem is that simply submitting several inquiries in a short period — even with no rejection, no missed payments of any kind — can lower a consumer's score. The result is an absurd situation: someone who prudently checks offers at three or four banks before taking out a mortgage or a consolidation loan can end up with worse terms (or even a rejection) than someone who signed the first agreement offered by their home bank without a second thought.
UOKiK is examining precisely this: whether banks reporting the number of credit inquiries to BIK is genuinely necessary for a fair assessment of whether a client can carry a multi-year obligation — or whether it has instead become a tool that discourages customers from switching banks and seeking cheaper financing. One consumer whose complaint reached the regulator wanted to compare consolidation-loan offers at several institutions; within a month, as a result of inquiries sent by successive banks to BIK, their score dropped noticeably, despite having no arrears and no rejections.
What changed on 1 July 2026
Before the searches took place, BIK's system underwent a significant technical change. As of 1 July 2026, historical bank credit inquiries were purged from the database, and new inquiries are now automatically deleted after 14 days if they do not result in financing being granted. That is a step in the right direction, but the fact that UOKiK decided to carry out searches barely a week later shows the regulator considers the existing rules insufficient — and wants to establish how long, and under what conditions, this "penalty for excessive caution" mechanism actually operated in practice.
What this means for your wallet today
So far, none of the four institutions has been formally charged — the proceeding is ongoing and could take months to conclude. That does not mean there is nothing you can do as a consumer. On the contrary, this is a good moment to review your own habits when comparing financial offers.
- Check your BIK report. Every consumer is entitled to a free copy of their own BIK report once every six months, showing how many credit inquiries have been logged recently and by whom.
- Distinguish a "preliminary check" from a full application. Some financial institutions offer a preliminary, non-binding creditworthiness estimate that does not generate a hard inquiry at BIK — ask about this explicitly before submitting any paperwork.
- Use comparison tools instead of submitting "trial" applications at several banks at once. Comparing offer parameters — interest rates, fees, loan terms — does not require sending a formal application and leaves no trace at BIK.
- Plan the order of your applications. If you do need to submit several applications (for example, when buying a home with a mortgage), do it within a short, tight window — many scoring models group inquiries submitted within a couple of weeks as a single "rate shopping" event rather than a series of separate ones.
How to compare loan and mortgage offers safely
Before submitting any application, it's worth narrowing your shortlist first. Check our personal loan comparison to get a sense of interest rates and fees across different institutions without generating a single credit inquiry. The same logic applies to bigger commitments — our mortgage comparison lets you line up terms from different banks before you decide to submit a formal application to two or three chosen institutions, rather than ten.
The same mechanism applies to deposit products — no credit inquiry is ever generated there, so you can compare term deposit or savings account offers for as long as you like, with zero risk to your credit history. It's worth remembering this distinction, since some readers confuse the creditworthiness-scoring mechanism used for loans with the entirely neutral process of opening an account or a deposit.
What could happen next
If UOKiK confirms the allegations, the consequences could be twofold. First, financial: penalties for BIK and the banks involved could run into the tens, or even hundreds, of millions of zloty, depending on the scale and duration of the breach. Second, systemic: the UOKiK president could order BIK and the banks to change their scoring methodology so that the number of credit inquiries stops lowering a score disproportionately to the actual risk involved. That would be a change that benefits everyone who — like BankSorter.com readers — treats comparing offers as the basis of responsible financial management, not a behaviour that should be punished with worse loan terms.
Summary — what you should do
The BIK, ING and mBank case shows that creditworthiness-assessment mechanisms in Poland still need oversight and correction. Until the proceeding is resolved, it pays to act carefully: check your BIK report, ask banks about the difference between a preliminary estimate and a full application, and compare offers wherever it leaves no trace on your credit history. Start by browsing the available loan offers on BankSorter.com — the simplest way to make an informed decision before you submit even a single formal application.