The Financial Services Commission announced that the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego, or KNF) granted a banking license to the Poland subsidiary of the Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) on November 19 (Central European Time). This follows KNF’s issuance of the preliminary license authorizing the establishment of IBK’s subsidiary in Poland in November 2024. The final approval comes two and a half years after the IBK first set up a local office in Wroclaw, Poland in May 2023. The FSC has been making continuous efforts to boost financial cooperation with foreign financial authorities, and the IBK’s gaining of a banking license in Poland demonstrates the effectiveness of global financial cooperation in facilitating overseas expansion of Korean financial companies.
From the time the IBK first applied for the establishment of a subsidiary in Poland in March 2024, the FSC had high-level meetings with its Polish counterpart (KNF) on two different occasions and requested strong support for Korean banks’ operation in Poland. This led to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in November 2024 and the strengthening of bilateral cooperation. Since most of non-European financial companies tend to enter the EU market by establishing a subsidiary (EU headquarter) in London or Frankfurt, the IBK’s Poland subsidiary will become the first and only non-European bank with its EU headquarter in Poland.
As the only Korean bank subsidiary established in Poland overseeing its overall EU operations, in accordance with EU’s single passport rights, the IBK’s Poland subsidiary will not only be able to operate in Central European countries, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, but serve as a bridge to expand its business operations to Western European countries, such as France and Germany. At first, the IBK’s Poland subsidiary is expected to strengthen the provision of financial support made available to Korean SMEs doing business in Eastern European countries, but ultimately will help make contributions to the strengthening of the Korea-EU economic cooperation in the areas of defense and energy industries.
* Please refer to the attached PDF for details.