Sejm (the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament) has adopted a bill amending the Banking Law, which enables local banks to partition its activities and spin them off the banking legal entity, for example through the sale to the other local bank or an EU credit institution.
The bill amending the Banking Law is a follow-up to the agreement regarding the merger of two Polish banks (PeKaO and Bank BPH), which was signed between the Polish Government and strategic shareholder of the two Polish banks, UniCredito.
The amendments will come into force on the day of the official publication of the Law in the Journal of Law. The bill is still subject to the approval of the Senate (upper chamber of Polish Parliament) and President of Poland. Yet, the government declares that the whole legislation process will be completed and the new bill will be published by 19 October, i.e. the deadline agreed between the Polish government and UniCredito in the agreement.
It should be noted that the division of the Bank BPH according to the new rules will be subject to the division and the transfer of part of assets of the divided bank.
The provisions of the bill were criticised and opposed by the banking regulator and Polish Banks Association. Despite this criticism regulations were finally approved by the European Central Bank.